Applications of Number: Chance

Probability is one area that has taken enormous strides, not only in theoretical development, but in winning recognition of its importance. On the one hand it is found in advanced theoretical physics and economics, and on the other it has percolated down into the beginning of school study. Up until the latter part of the 18th century, it was not properly recognized as an area of applied mathematics. Although chance and games of chance have been with us for millenia, and despite the fact that numbers are clearly involved, the subject was never treated as ripe for thorough investigation. Perhaps, in the eyes of scholars, probability was sullied by its association with gambling, making it unfit for serious study. At the same time the random nature of chance may have suggested that it is the very opposite of mathematics, which traditionally was seen as the the subject of eternal and rigid truths. Be that as it may, probability has turned out to be one of the most fruitful and active fields for mathematical analysis and continues to produce surprises.