Normal distribution and central limit theorem
Distribución normal y teorema central del límite
- Date
- 1733 · confidence high
- Place
- London, England
- Credited to
- Abraham de Moivre (1733); Laplace (1810, central limit theorem); Gauss (1809, error theory)
- People
- 👤 Abraham de Moivre1667–1754
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
The bell curve appears as the limit of the binomial distribution and, by the central limit theorem, as the distribution of the sum of many independent effects. It explains why measurement errors and so many natural phenomena are normally distributed.
The name Gaussian obscures the priority of De Moivre and Laplace; Gauss introduced it as the law of errors in Theoria motus (1809).
What it led to
- error theory
- mathematical statistics
- statistical mechanics
- quality control
Built on
- Law of large numbers1713
- binomial distribution
Made possible
- Least squares method1805
- confidence intervals
- psychometrics
- noise filters