Karl Pearson seems to have introduced the terms "symmetry" and "kurtosis" around 1895, and a couple of years before that began talking about the concepts of the beta coefficients to measure them.
Odd-numbered moments above 3 also describe symmetry, and even-numbered moments above 4 also describe kurtosis, but they add little to what the 3rd and 4th moments reveal about symmetry and kurtosis, respectively. Jerrold H. Zar Department of Biological Sciences Northern Illinois University DeKalb IL 60115-2854 [EMAIL PROTECTED] ================================== >>> Gottfried Helms <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 03/17/03 11:38PM >>> <snip> I don't really know, when and from whom, the terms (and formal definitons) for skewness and kurtosis were introduced. But I guess, that the *concept* of these distribution-related aspects were more-or-less by chance operationalized by the 3'rd and 4'th moment - I suppose, simply because it was an obvious handy approach.=================== <snip> . . ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . =================================================================
