[[!meta  title="Gompertz' paper"]]
[[!meta  date="2008-06-30 19:05:40"]]
The natural logarithm (log base e) used to be called the *hyperbolic logarithm* (see [here](http://www.humboldt.edu/~mef2/Presentations/Estimations.html)).
Other than the understandably old fasioned notation, Gompertz article is wonderfully written, so much so that I can follow all his math, even with the strange notation (although obviously I had to look hyperbolic logs up).
He makes a number of brief excursions to set up the problem, including a reference to "the great age of the patriarchs of scripture".
He even takes a break to clarify his exponent notation.  I love this guy.

All the non-symbolic math was starting to confuse me, so I went back and Googled a bit more, turning up [this](http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amc.2003.08.086) paper which claims to help fit the Gompertz distribution, and even (gasp) uses the same Gompertz distribution that Gompertz does :p.
It even talks about probability density functions.
I dunno if I'm ready for another relationship yet though, I've been hurt so many times before ;).

[[!tag tags/sawsim]]
[[!tag tags/theory]]