A nice survey of this territory is: http://books.google.com/books?id=TN3_d7ibo30C&pg=PA85&lpg=PA85&dq=stigler+normal+oxymoron&source=web&ots=OwGhmnDk3O&sig=J7ou_L8-_Mu4L14c3KJAhefrD4I&hl=en
I particularly like the phrase: "[normal] is in this respect a rare one-word oxymoron." url: www.econ.uiuc.edu/~roger Roger Koenker email [EMAIL PROTECTED] Department of Economics vox: 217-333-4558 University of Illinois fax: 217-244-6678 Champaign, IL 61820 On Mar 2, 2008, at 7:33 AM, (Ted Harding) wrote: > Hi Folks, > Apologies to anyone who'd prefer not to see this query > on this list; but I'm asking because it is probably the > forum where I'm most likely to get a good answer! > > I'm interested in the provenance of the name "normal > distribution" (for what I'd really prefer to call the > "Gaussian" distribution). > > According to Wikipedia, "The name "normal distribution" > was coined independently by Charles S. Peirce, Francis > Galton and Wilhelm Lexis around 1875." > > So be it, if that was the case -- but I would like to > know why they chose the name "normal": what did they > intend to convey? > > As background: I'm reflecting a bit on the usage in > statistics of "everyday language" as techincal terms, > as in "significantly different". This, for instance, > is likely to be misunderstood by the general publidc > when they encounter statements in the media. > > Likewise, "normally distributed" would probably be > interpreted as "distributed in the way one would > normally expect" or, perhaps, "there was nothing > unusual about the distribution." > > Comments welcome! > With thanks, > Ted. > > -------------------------------------------------------------------- > E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 > Date: 02-Mar-08 Time: 13:04:17 > ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------ > > ______________________________________________ > R-help@r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
