Newtonian physics began with an attempt to make precise predictions about natural phenomena, predictions that could be accurately checked by observation and experiment. The goal was to understand nature as a deterministic, “clockwork” universe. The application of probability distributions to physics developed much more slowly. Early uses of probability arguments focused on distributions with well-defined means and variances. The prime example was the Gaussian law of errors, in which the mean traditionally represented the most probable value from a series of repeated measurements of a fixed quantity, and the variance was related to the uncertainty of those measurements.
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