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HistoryThe earliest problem on this subject dates back to the time of Buff on, the naturalist, who proposed the problem, solved by himself and Laplace, to determine the probability that a short needle, thrown at random upon a floor ruled with equidistant parallel lines, will fall on one of the lines. Then came Sylvester s four-point problem: to find the probability that four points, taken at random within a given boundary, shall form a re entrant quadrilateral. Local probability has been studied in England by Clarke, McColl, Watson, Wolsten- holme, but with greatest success by Crofton of the military school at Woolwich. It was pursued in America by Seitz ; in France by Jordan, Lemoine, Barbier, and others. Through considerations of local probability, Crofton was led to the evaluation of certain definite integrals. prev next |