The River of Statistics and Data
What appears—and disappears—when people and the world are summarized as data?
From de Moivre's normal distribution to big data — 300 years of mining truth from data.
Read the current
What changed between the cities?
- 1
1733–1812
scholars and schools
LondonParisde Moivre — First Form of Normal Distribution
In London in 1733, de Moivre found a bell-shaped approximation while studying repeated coin tosses.
The Doctrine of ChancesPlace this segment on the map - 2
1801–1860
scholars and schools
ParisGöttingenGauss — Least Squares and Normal Distribution
Gauss used least squares to recover the orbit of Ceres; the associated normal curve became known as the Gaussian distribution.
Least squares and the Gaussian distributionPlace this segment on the map - 3
1900–1960
scholars and schools
GöttingenLondonPearson and Fisher — British Statistics School
Pearson’s chi-squared test and Fisher’s analysis of variance and experimental design helped establish modern statistics in Britain.
Chi-squared tests and analysis of variancePlace this segment on the map - 4
1933–1980
scholars and schools
ParisMoscowKolmogorov — Measure-Theoretic Axiomatization
Building on measure theory developed by Borel and Lebesgue in Paris, Kolmogorov stated three axioms in Moscow in 1933, decisively unifying probability and statistics.
Grundbegriffe der Wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung (1933), based on Borel-Lebesgue measure theoryPlace this segment on the map
How to read the lines
Each line is an editorial route through problems, texts, and practices. It does not imply one book moving in a straight line, a sole invention, or identical adoption everywhere.