Jules Henry Poincaré
Jan 30th, 2010 | By admin | Category: AnecdotesFrom: Bob Hayden (hayden#NoSpam.oz.plymouth.edu)
A query from Laurie Snell at Dartmouth…
—– Forwarded message from J. Laurie Snell —–
I wonder if you could do me a favor. I am trying to find the origin of the
mathematician-baker story. The version I heard was that Poincare bought
bread once a day from his local baker. The bread was supposed to weigh 1
kilo but afer a year of record keeping Poicare found a nice normal
distribution with mean 950 gr. He called the police and they told the baker
to behave himself. One year later Poicare reported to the police that the
baker had not reformed. The police confronted the baker and he said “How
could Poicare have known that we always gave him the largest loaf?
Poincare then showed the police his record for this year which was again a
bell shaped curve with max at 950 gr. but trucated on the left side.
There is an exhibit at the Boston Science Museum about this but there is no
reference given.
Could you ask your newsgroups if anyone knows the orgin of this story?
Thanks. Laurie
