The Evolution of the Normal Distribution

Several of these curves appear in Figure 1. Not only is the bell curve familiar to these millions, but they also know of its main use: to describe the general, or idealized, shape of graphs of data. It has, of course, many other uses and plays as significant a role in the social sciences as differentiation does in the natural sciences. As is the case with many important mathematical concepts, the rise of this curve to its current prominence makes for a tale that is both instructive and amusing. Actually, there are two tales here: the invention of the curve as a tool for computing probabilities and the recognition of its utility in describing data sets.

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