These talks will be self-contained presentations of mathematical concepts
and theorems. They are intended to be accessible to all mathematics
students. Coffee, tea and drinks will be provided.
Tuesday 9th October, 2001
1:00 pm, Science Lecture Theatre S14
Normal or not normal: that is the (central) question
Dr Kais Hamza
School of Mathematical Sciences
Monash University
One distribution stands high above all the others in Probability and Statistics; it is the Normal or Gaussian distribution. The reason for the celebrity of the normal distribution is without doubt the Central Limit Theorem (CLT). While the CLT features in every first year Statistics textbook, it took many great mathematicians and almost two centuries to reach its modern form.
In this talk, we will trace the history of the development of the CLT as
well as explore some of the amazing properties the normal distribution
enjoys.