17 Dec
2003
17 Dec
'03
11:17 p.m.
snow wrote:
I'm not saying that Gauss *didn't* discover the normal distribution. I'm saying that he didn't have to *prove* he did. Of course not. He was the greatest mathematician of his time, and probably since. I'd call the event a reputation distortion.[...] If Gauss had been called on it, what would have happened? If the caller could _prove_ he was lying, what then? He still would have been the greatist mathmatician of the time, but he would have been seen as a liar and a crackpot. We know how that works don't we.
No. I think the more common case is "the rich get richer, the poor get poorer." The truth is insufficent when honesty puts you at a disadvantage. -rich