A History of the Central Limit Theorem

Download or read book A History of the Central Limit Theorem written by Hans Fischer and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-10-08 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study discusses the history of the central limit theorem and related probabilistic limit theorems from about 1810 through 1950. In this context the book also describes the historical development of analytical probability theory and its tools, such as characteristic functions or moments. The central limit theorem was originally deduced by Laplace as a statement about approximations for the distributions of sums of independent random variables within the framework of classical probability, which focused upon specific problems and applications. Making this theorem an autonomous mathematical object was very important for the development of modern probability theory.