Great Mathematicians · Foundations
Pascal, Fermat & the Birth of Probability
In 1654 a gambler's question sparked letters between Blaise Pascal and Pierre de Fermat that invented probability and expected value: the problem of points, de Méré's dice paradox, Pascal's triangle and Pascal's wager.
Step 1 of 6 · Overview30 min read ·
Key idea
Prereqs: Counting & combinatorics; Probability rules (Math). Next: Euler. Sources: Keith Devlin's *The Unfinished Game* (2008) and Microsoft Research talk; Ian Hacking's *The Emergence of Probability*.Next: 1. Two mathematicians