On 13 Apr 2000 20:34:14 -0500, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Herman
Rubin) wrote, concerning the name of the "normal distribution" :
>
> I believe that the term was at least popularized, if not
> originated, by Quetelet, who called it the distribution of
> the "normal person".
Stephen Stigler, in his fine history, gives many pages to Quetelet and
his fascination with the "average man" and those descriptive curves.
However, in a footnote on page 201 (1986 edition) Stigler says that Q.
did not use the term "normal".
A footnote on page 143, concerning the name of the normal, refers the
reader to Stigler article of 1980, which happens to discuss the normal
distribution as a particular example, in an light-hearted piece on
eponyms. (That article, which I just read, proclaims Stigler's Law of
Eponyms, which is -- No law is ever named after the person who first
discovered or discussed it. Stigler goes on to observe that, more
often than not, the famous person had very little to do with that
particular observation.)
Until someone has another reference, I think the question is still
open....
--
Rich Ulrich, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.pitt.edu/~wpilib/index.html
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