Two Scientific Giants: Laplace,  Gauss and the Law of Errors

Professor Thomas Körner

  • Monday 1 March 2027, 17:30 – 18:30
  • Bristol-Myers Squibb Lecture Theatre, Cambridge
Upcoming event Booking Recommended In-person Lecture Lent Term
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  • Booking required: No
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Overview

Laplace is sometimes described as the “French Newton". He is best known as a physicist, but he was a polymath and he also played a key part in the development of probability theory. I shall talk about how he came to the result now known as the central limit theorem and why we consider it so important.

Speaker Biographies

Professor Tom Körner is a pure mathematician and author of books on popular mathematics. He is Emeritus Professor of Fourier Analysis at the University of Cambridge and Emeritus Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge.


Location

Venue Address
Bristol-Myers Squibb Lecture Theatre
Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry
29 Lensfield Rd
Cambridge CB2 1ER
01223 336300

The entrance to the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry can be found at the side of the Scott Polar Research Institute, opposite the boat. The Bristol-Myers Squibb Lecture Theatre is located directly in the entrance as you enter the building. 

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