Good, Jekinek, Mercer, and Robbins on Turing's Estimate of Probabilities
Arthur J. Nadas · American Journal of Mathematical and Management Sciences · 1991
SYNOPTIC ABSTRACTA.M. Turing, in a 1941 personal communication to I.J. Good, suggested a formula for estimating probabilities of words in text and, more generally, of species in a mixed population of various species. The formula is particularly interesting in a “small sample” situation where events of interest did not occur at all. It is remarkable that Turing's formula can be obtained by significantly different statistical methods.