Introduction

PART 1: The Development of Mathematical Statistics in Astronomy and Geodesy before 1827

1. Least Squares and the Combination of Observations

Legendre in 1805
Cotes's Rule
Tobias Mayer and the Libration of the Moon
Saturn, Jupiter, and Enter
Laplace's Rescue of the Solar System
Roger Boscovich and the Figure of the Earth
Laplace and the Method of Situation
Legendre and the Invention of Least Squares


2. Probabilists and the Measurement of Uncertainty

Jacob Bernoulli
De Moivre and the Expanded Binomial
Bernoulli's Failure
De Moivre's Approximation
De Moivre's Deficiency
Simpson and Bayes
Simpson's Crucial Step toward Error
A Bayesian Critique


3. Inverse Probability

Laplace and Inverse Probability
The Choice of Means
The Deduction of a Curve of Errors in 1772-1774

Stephen M. Stigler is Professor of Statistics at the University of Chicago.

Read More by Stephen M. Stigler:

• Statistics on the Table: The History of Statistical Concepts and Methods