Suchergebnisse

Summary  ABRAHAM DE MOIVRE (1667 Vitry ‐ 1754 London) was one of the foremost pioneers in the domain of the theory of probability. His principal contributions are laid down in his "Doctrine of Chances" (three editions, 1718, 1738, 1756). This classic work, almost forgotten, is now republished, as a splendid photographic reprint of the third (last) edition, by Chelsea Publishing Company of New York (1967).In this article we specially mention his original contributions respecting the problem of the duration of play, the theory and application of recurrent series, the theory of runs, and especially his extension of the value of BERNOULLI'S theorem by the aid of STIRLING'S theorem.In the last mentioned research DE MOIVRE obtained the equation for the curve of error, thus antedating LAPLACE by about 50 and GAUSS by 76 years. This important fact is discovered by KARL PEARSON in 1924.