How statistics entered physics?

Olivier Rey (1)

1 IHPST - Institut d'Histoire et de Philosophie des Sciences et des Techniques

Now that statistics is a branch of mathematics, it is easy to imagine that its use in the field of human affairs is a by-product of modern science’s way of looking at the world. Historical study contradicts such an idea: it is in the field of human affairs that quantitative statistics have developed, and it is only afterwards that it became a method for the natural sciences. Most physicists in the 19th century considered statistics all too human to have a place in the scientific study of nature. It took all Maxwell’s authority and persuasion to make statistical analysis a new style of scientific thought in physics.

Domaines: Histoire, Philosophie et Sociologie des sciences

Olivier Rey. How statistics entered physics?. 7th International Conference of the European Society for the History of Science, Czech Society for the History of Sciences and Technology; Charles University, Sep 2016, Prague, Czech Republic. ⟨hal-01662284⟩