Hi, Brian wrote: > A stochastic guy? German wikipedia says it's greek: stochastikē technē = The Art of Guessing. Some mathematician obviously thought that Ratekunst does not sound impressive enough. Back then, greek was mandatory for getting to university. So the word got unearthed and re-used in math. (Still better than the fate of the word that ended up as "casemate".) Have a nice day :) Thomas