G. D'Agostini - Some historical studies

The Gauss' Bayes Factor

• arXiv:2003.10878 [math.HO].
• pdf (local copy)
• Gauss book:
  • Theoria motus corporum coelestium in sectionibus conicis solem ambientum
    (For Book 2, sec. 3, pp. 205-224, which include 'article' 176, see also here)
  • Theory of the motion of the heavenly bodies moving about the sun in conic sections: a translation of Gauss's ``Theoria motus.''
  • Theorie der Bewegung der Himmelskörper welche in Kegelschnitten die Sonne umlaufen
  • Théorie du mouvement des corps célestes parcourrant des sections coniques autour du soleil

The Fermi's Bayes Theorem

• Document
  • pdf file
  • browsable version
  • Preprint physics/0509080 (it includes an abstract and LaTeX source).
• Primary sources
  • J. Orear, Enrico Fermi, the master scientist (local copy, pdf 3.8MB).
  • J. Orear, Notes on statistics for physicists, revised version (local copy, pdf 0.6MB)
  • E. Fermi, Note e memorie ('collected paper'): Vol. 1, Vol. 2
  • N. Metropolis, The beginning of the Monte Carlo method,
    appeared in the Special Issue of Los Alamos Science (nr. 15, 1987) in memory of Stan Ulam.
  • N. Metropolis and S. Ulam, The Monte Carlo method, J. Amer. Stat. Assoc., 44 (1949) 335-341
    pdf available here (local copy)
    [It contains an interesting example by Fermi on how to solve a time-independent Schroedinger equation by sampling,
    transforming it into a diffusion problem via proper change of variables]
  • C.F. Gauss, Theoria motus corporum coelestium..., Book 2, Sec. 3 (pp. 205-224)
    (These pages contains also the Gauss' Bayes Factor -- see above.)
    A short account, in modern terminology, is given in Bayesian reasoning in data analysis:
    • For some details on the missing steps between Eq.(6.53) and Eq.(6.54) see here.
    [The 1857 C.H. Davis' translation has been recently reprinted!]
• Secondary sources
  • C. Bernardini and L. Bonolis, Eds., Enrico Fermi: his work and legacy
    I capitoli della versione italiana sono disponibili online
  • M. Falcioni and A. Vulpiani, Il contributo di Enrico Fermi ai sistemi non lineari. L'influenza di un articolo mai pubblicato,
    contribution to Enrico Fermi: his work and legacy (local copy)
  • G.P. Berman and F.M. Izrailev, The Fermi-Pasta-Ulam problem: 50 years of progress, arXiv:nlin/0411062 [nlin.CD]
  • S.M. Stigler, The history of statistics - The measurement of uncertainty before 1900
• What does `Bayesian' mean?
  • See e.g. here,
  • search in Amazon.com
  • or google it

Why does the meter beat the second?

• Preprint Roma 1 nr. 1394/04 and physics/0412078:
  • postscript
  • pdf
  • browsable version (translation from latex not perfect...)
  • Sunto in italiano
  • Articolo su Il Sole 24 Ore
  • Related links
• Articolo con taglio didattico su Progetto Alice (2008, Vol. IX, nr. 27) Perché il pendolo di un metro oscilla in un secondo?.
• Altro articolo, con ben altro taglio e con titolo “Perché il Metro Cattolico di Burattini è lungo... un metro?” su La Grande Cordata, Natale 2008.
  [Riprodotto come opuscolo a sé stante nel Natale 2009 con il patrocinio del Comune di Agordo e della Sezione Agordina del CAI: copia scansionata (1.9MB).]