Page:Reflections on the decline of science in England - Babbage - 1830.pdf/116

observations, to know what is the probability of his being exposed to an error so little to be guarded against, and so calculated to lull the suspicions of the unfortunate astronomer to whom it may happen.

In fact, the question resolves itself into this: the true latitude of a place being determined by sets of observations as in the first of the following columns—

True latitudes observed.				Latitudes as computed by a mistake of Capt. Sabine's.
	°	′	″	0°	00′	000″
α Lyræ, 28th Aug. . . .	02	031	022.0	02	031	042.4
α Lyræ, 29th Aug. . . .			31.8			43.8
α Pavonis, 29th Aug. . .			44.0			44.5
α Lyræ, 31st Aug. . . .			42.6			44.6
α Cygni, 31st Aug. . . .			39.2			42.0
α Gruris, 2d Sept. . . .			27.4			42.2

what are the chances that, by one error all the latitudes in the first column should be brought so nearly to an agreement as they are in the second column? The circumstance of the num-