History of Probability
By: Maddie Hawes & Krista Paulson
Bibliography
- http://www.maths.tcd.ie/pub/HistMath/People/Pascal/RouseBall/RB_Pascal.html
- http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/maths/histstat/pascal.pdf
- http://www.maths.tcd.ie/pub/HistMath/People/Fermat/RouseBall/RB_Fermat.html
Contributions
Math
- Pascal invented the first calculator
- Fermat contributed to calculus
Chevalier's Questions
- How many tosses of two dice were necessary to ensure that a roll of double 6's was more likely than a roll without double 6's?
Chevalier de Mere
- How could the stakes be distributed fairly in a game which was ended before one of the players won the necessary number of rounds to emerge victorious?
1607-1684
Religion
- Born in Poitou, France in 1607
- Made many religious contributions
- Wrote 18 Provincial Letters & The Pensees
- Pascal's Wager
- Real name was Antoine Gombaud, called Chevalier due to his dialogue characters
- He went to school in Mere
- Came from a wealthy family
- 10 letters between Pascal and Fermat and Fermat and Carcavi
- Talked of de Mere's questions
- There was a lot of dispute
- First theory was arithmetic, second was theory of points
- Fermat finds simple solution, Pascal gives Fermat total credit
- Professional gambler & amateur mathematician
- Fortunate & unfortunate gambler, suffering his biggest loss in 1650
Letters Exchanged
Blaise Pascal
1623-1662
- Born in Clermont, France on June 19, 1623
- Died in Paris, France on August 19, 1662
Pierre de Fermat
- In 1631, he moved to Paris
- Home schooled
- At 12, he taught himself geometry
- At 14, he was working with influential French geometricians
1601-1665
P(E)+P(E)=1 or P(E)=1-P(E) (pg. 70)
- At 18, he invented the first arithmetical machine
- In 1650, he began studying religion
- Came from a wealthy family
- He studied law and by 1631. he was a lawyer
- Devoted most of his time to math
- Good scholar, but never had any of his work published during his lifetime
- His work was found after his death, but there is no proof if it is actually his
- These papers are believed to be a revision of his previous work
- Born near Montauban, France in 1601
- Later died at Castres on January 12, 1665