"History of Statistics" Webpage

History of Statistics - Class Notes
From The History of Statistics: The Measurement of Uncertainty before 1900, Stephen Stigler (Belknap Press of Harvard, 1986)

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 Statistics" 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).

Part One: The Development of Mathematical Statistics in Astronomy and Geodesy before 1827.

1. Least Squares and the Combination of Observations.

Study Guide 1.

2. Probabilists and the Measurement of Uncertainty.

Study Guide 2.

3. Inverse Probability.

Study Guide 3.

4. The Gauss-Laplace Synthesis.

Study Guide 4.

Part Two: The Struggle to Extend a Calculus of Probabilities to the Social Sciences.

5. Quetelet's Two Attempts.

Study Guide 5.

6. Attempts to Revive the Binomial.

Study Guide 6.

7. Psychophysics as a Counterpoint.

Study Guide 7.

Part Three: A Breakthrough in Studies of Heredity.

8. The English Breakthrough: Galton.

Study Guide 8.

9. The Next Generation: Edgeworth.

Study Guide 9.

10. Pearson and Yule.

Study Guide 10.

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