Points on the Path to Probability

Abstract

Many textbooks on probability open with the story of how the Chevalier de Méré approached Pascal with the problem of points. Very few textbooks explain the nature of this problem, which requires determining the division of stakes when a game is ended prematurely. Still fewer books state that the problem was several centuries old when Pascal solved it. Many students are under the misapprehension that all mathematical knowledge is the result of some single brilliant idea rather than a cumulative process of successes and failures. A historical examination of the various attempts to solve this problem can give students insight into the nature of mathematical discovery.