François Nicole
b. 23 December 1683 Paris
d. 18 January 1758 Paris
Nicole wrote Traité du calcul de
différence finie on the calculus of finite differences
which was published in 1717. In addition, he wrote a work on roulettes
and two memoirs on cubics dated 1729 and 1731.
In the realm of probability we have "Examen et
Resolution de quelques
Questions sur les Jeux," read to the Academy of Sciences at
Paris on 11 February 1730 followed by "Methode"
on 29 March 1730. The two papers seek to determine the advantage a
player has over others when different strengths are supposed. The
situation is in a game where a given number of subgames is required for
play. For example, there may be a card game of four players for which
the game consists of 8 hands. This problem is in some manner
related to Jakob Bernoulli's
study of court tennis.