It is interesting to see some of Gauss's side quests during his life and the scope of his interests.
I remember reading that Gauss's (and his contemporaries') foray into statistics was greatly motivated by the central limit theorem. Every now and then one sees a question about least squares, asking why we don't usually use least cubes. [1]
Abel said of Gauss: "He is like the fox who erases his tracks in the sand with his tail."
I remember reading that Gauss's (and his contemporaries') foray into statistics was greatly motivated by the central limit theorem. Every now and then one sees a question about least squares, asking why we don't usually use least cubes. [1]
Abel said of Gauss: "He is like the fox who erases his tracks in the sand with his tail."
[1] In such a discussion, if we are lucky to have a healthy discusion, we see references such as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauss%E2%80%93Markov_theorem.