An incomplete history of Mathematical and Statistical modelling

Note that these pages are a work in process and will be updated on an ad hoc basis.

Statistical models are different because they don't have to obey the laws of Maths. The classic example is when someone draws a straight line on a log plot and declares exponential growth. Since the exponential function goes all the way to infinity if the variable is finite then some Mathematical trick has to be invoked. That trick may then break some law of nature or be invalidated by Occam's razor.

Themes

Celestial mechanics, Exponential decay, Epidemiology, Exponential growth, Finance, Logistic, Normal distribution

History