Bayes

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Thomas Bayes
Born1701
London, England
Died7 April 1761
Tunbridge Wells, England
NationalityBritish
Known forBayes' theorem
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics, Statistics


Thomas Bayes (1701 – 7 April 1761) was an English statistician, philosopher, and Presbyterian minister. He is best known for Bayes' theorem, which describes the probability of an event based on prior knowledge of conditions that might be related to the event.

Early Life and Education[edit | edit source]

Thomas Bayes was born in London, England, in 1701. He was the son of a Presbyterian minister and followed in his father's footsteps by becoming a minister himself. Bayes studied at the University of Edinburgh, where he focused on logic and theology.

Bayes' Theorem[edit | edit source]

Bayes' theorem is a fundamental result in probability theory that describes how to update the probabilities of hypotheses when given evidence. The theorem is expressed mathematically as: P(A|B) = \frac{P(B|A) \cdot P(A)}{P(B)} where:

  • P(A|B) is the probability of hypothesis A given the evidence B.
  • P(B|A) is the probability of evidence B given that hypothesis A is true.
  • P(A) is the probability of hypothesis A being true (prior probability).
  • P(B) is the probability of the evidence (marginal likelihood).

Contributions to Statistics[edit | edit source]

Bayes' work laid the foundation for the field of Bayesian statistics, which is a subset of statistics in which probability expresses a degree of belief in an event. Bayesian statistics is widely used in various fields, including machine learning, data science, and artificial intelligence.

Legacy[edit | edit source]

Bayes' contributions to mathematics and statistics have had a lasting impact. His theorem is a cornerstone of modern statistical inference and has applications in a wide range of disciplines. The term "Bayesian" is used to describe methods and approaches that are based on Bayes' theorem.

Related Pages[edit | edit source]

See Also[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]

Contributors: Prab R. Tumpati, MD