Law of large numbers
Ley de los grandes números
- Date
- 1713 · confidence high
- Place
- Basel, Switzerland
- Credited to
- Jacob Bernoulli (Ars Conjectandi, posthumous)
- People
- 👤 Jakob Bernoulli1655–1705
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What was discovered
The relative frequency of an event converges to its probability as the experiment is repeated. The first limit theorem of probability, which justifies inference from data.
The Ars Conjectandi also introduces the Bernoulli numbers and the binomial distribution.
What it led to
- the central limit theorem
- inferential statistics
- Kolmogorov's axiomatisation
Built on
- Wave theory of light and Huygens' principle1678-1690
- Pascal's and Fermat's probability
Made possible
- Normal distribution and central limit theorem1733
- Chebyshev's inequality1867
- Markov chains1906
- insurance
- quality control
- opinion polls