2024/10/25 by Nils Lid Hjort, Emil Aas Stoltenberg, Hjort, Nils Lid +2
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Computer and information sciences #FOS: Mathematics #Other Statistics (stat.OT) #Probability (math.PR) #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Statistics Theory (math.ST)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2410.19555
openalex publication_date 2024/10/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The Stirling approximation formula for n! dates from 1730. Here we give new and instructive proofs of this and related approximation formulae via tools of probability and statistics. There are connections to the Central Limit Theorem and also to approximations of marginal distributions in Bayesian setups. Certain formulae emerge by working through particular instances, some independently verifiable but others perhaps not. A particular case yielding new formulae is that of summing independent uniforms, related to the Irwin--Hall distribution. Yet further proofs of the Stirling flow from examining aspects of limiting normality of the sample median of uniforms, and from these again we find a proof for the Wallis product formula for π.