Volterra's Prolusione as a source for Borel's interest in probability

Antonin Durand (1) , Laurent Mazliak (2)

1 Sciences historiques et philologiques
2 LPMA - Laboratoire de Probabilités et Modèles Aléatoires

In this paper, we study the influence of a paper by Vito Volterra on Borel's interest for probability. We try to prove that the reading of this article was for Borel an occasion of discovering new applications for the mathematics of randomness (such as biology or economics) and of measuring their importance as a tool provided to the citizen in order to face choices in social life.

Mots clés: History of probability theory; Application of mathematics

Domaines: Histoire et perspectives sur les mathématiques [math.HO]; Probabilités [math.PR]

Antonin Durand, Laurent Mazliak. Volterra's Prolusione as a source for Borel's interest in probability. 2010. ⟨hal-00531295⟩