Copies of the classnotes are on the internet in PDF format as given below. The notes and supplements may contain hyperlinks to posted webpages; the links appear in red fonts. The "Proofs of Theorems" files were prepared in Beamer. The "Printout of Proofs" are printable PDF files of the Beamer slides without the pauses. These notes have not been classroom tested and may have typographical errors.
"History of Classic Probability" is not a formal ETSU class. But these notes could be used as a supplement to the Foundations of Probability and Statistics-Calculus Based class (MATH 2050) or to the Mathematical Statistics sequence (STAT 4047/5047 and STAT 4057/5057). The book, Classic Problems of Probability by Prakash Gorroochurn, is available online through ETSU's Charles C. Sherrod Library (an ETSU password is required; accessed 4/22/2021).
- Problem 1. Cardano and Games of Chance (1564).
- Problem 2. Galileo and a Discovery Concerning Dice (1620).
- Problem 3. The Chevalier de Méré Problem I: The Problem of Dice (1654).
- Problem 4. The Chevalier de Méré Problem II: The Problem of Points (1654).
- Problem 5. Huygens and the Gambler's Ruin (1657).
- Problem 6. The Pepys-Newton Connection (1693).
- Problem 7. Recontres with Montmort (1708)
- Problem 8. Jacob Bernouilli and His Golden Theorem (1713).
- Problem 9. De Moivre's Prolbem (1730).
- Problem 10. De Moivre, Gauss, and the Normal Curve (1730, 1809).
- Problem 11. Daniel Bernoulli and the St. Petersburg Problem (1738).
- Problem 12. D'Alembert and the "Croix ou Pile" Article (1754).
- Problem 13. D'Alembert and the Gambler's Fallazcy (1761).
- Problem 14. Bayes, Laplace, and Philosophies of Probability (1764, 1774).
- Problem 15. Leibniz's Error (1768).
- Problem 16. The Buffon Needle Problem (1777).
- Problem 17. Bertrand's Ballot Problem (1887).
- Problem 18. Bertrand's Strange Three Boxes (1889).
- Problem 19. Bertrand's Chords (1889).
- Problem 20. Three Coins and a Puzzle from Galton (1894).
- Problem 21. Lewis Carroll's Pillow Problem No. 72 (1894).
- Problem 22. Borel and a Differenti Kind of Normality (1909).
- Problem 23. Borel's Paradox and Kolmogorov's Axioms (1909, 1933).
- Problem 24. Of Borel, Monkeys, and the New Creationism (1913).
- Problem 25. Kraitchnik's Neckties and Newcomb's Problem (1930, 1960).
- Problem 26. Fisher and the Lady Drinking Tea (1935),
- Problem 27. Benford and the Peculiar Behavior of the First Significant Digit (1938).
- Problem 28. Coinciding Birthdays (1939).
- Problem 29. Lévy and the Arc Sine Law (1939).
- Problem 30. Simpson's Paradox (1951).
- Problem 31. Gamow, Stern, and Elevators (1958).
- Problem 32. Monty Hall, Cars, and Goats (1975).
- Problem 33. Parrondo's Perplexing Paradox (1996).
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