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Joseph Louis François Bertrand

Born: 11 March 1822 Paris
Died:  5 April 1900 Paris

Bertrand was a professor at the École Polytechnique and Collège de France. He is most famous for translating Gauss' writings on the method of least squares into French. This is Méthode des Moindres Carrés Mémoirs sur la Combinaison des Observations. (1855) Paris: Mallet-Bachelier.

 

He is also known for the Bertrand Paradox of probability theory. This may be found discussed on pages 4-5 of his Calcul des Probabilités (1889) Paris: Gauthier-Villars