On Mon, Mar 3, 2008 at 8:25 AM, Duncan Murdoch <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On 3/3/2008 9:10 AM, Rogers, James A [PGRD Groton] wrote: > > As someone of partly French heritage, I would also ask how this > > distribution came to be called "Gaussian". It seems very unfair to de > > Moivre, who discovered the distribution at least half a century earlier. > > :-) > > Just an example of Stigler's Law.
Taking this to a whole new level of "off topic", I wonder if Stigler's Law is self-referential? That is, should Stigler's Law more correctly be attributed to someone else? > > On Mar 2, 2008, at 7:33 AM, (Ted Harding) wrote: > > > >> Hi Folks, > >> Apologies to anyone who'd prefer not to see this query > >> on this list; but I'm asking because it is probably the > >> forum where I'm most likely to get a good answer! > >> > >> I'm interested in the provenance of the name "normal > >> distribution" (for what I'd really prefer to call the > >> "Gaussian" distribution). > >> > >> According to Wikipedia, "The name "normal distribution" > >> was coined independently by Charles S. Peirce, Francis > >> Galton and Wilhelm Lexis around 1875." > >> > >> So be it, if that was the case -- but I would like to > >> know why they chose the name "normal": what did they > >> intend to convey? > >> > >> As background: I'm reflecting a bit on the usage in > >> statistics of "everyday language" as techincal terms, > >> as in "significantly different". This, for instance, > >> is likely to be misunderstood by the general publidc > >> when they encounter statements in the media. > >> > >> Likewise, "normally distributed" would probably be > >> interpreted as "distributed in the way one would > >> normally expect" or, perhaps, "there was nothing > >> unusual about the distribution." > >> > >> Comments welcome! > >> With thanks, > >> Ted. > >> > > > > ______________________________________________ > > R-help@r-project.org mailing list > > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > > PLEASE do read the posting guide > http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. > > ______________________________________________ > R-help@r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. > ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.