Mathematical Theory of Game of Chance
Andre Marie Ampere is, of course, known for his contribution to the field of electromagnetism. The unit of electric current is named after him. It was a flash of inspiration which helped him realise that if electricity produced magnetic fields (as Oersted had shown earlier), then all magnetic fields should be a by-product of electricity. And so the first electromagnetic was made by him.
But he is lesser known for another major contribution which he made - not in the field of physics, but in statistics. Like many intuitive people, Ampere had a hunch about he was very certain. The hypothesis was that the habitual gamblers are bound to lose in the long run. He had proposed this theorem to himself and felt convinced of its validity. The only problem was that he did not know how to prove it. The solution to the theorem came to him in 1802, in a flash, without any conscious efforts. Recording it in his diary, he wrote:
"It was seven years ago I proposed to myself a problem which I have not been able to solve directly, but for which I had found by chance a solution, and knew that it was correct, without being able to prove it... At last, I do not know how, I found it, together with a large number of curious and new considerations concerning the theory of probability."
The insight which he wrote down in monograph form, came to be known as Considerations of the Mathematical Theory of Games of Chance, and earned him a professorship in Lyon.
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