Central Limit Theorem

why the average of anything becomes a bell

Plate IX
Sample size n12
Trials0
Mean of means
Std (obs / σ√n)

Draw $n$ values from a lopsided source, keep their average, repeat. The means pile into a Gaussian $\mathcal{N}(\mu,\sigma^2/n)$ — whatever the source. After P.-S. Laplace, 1810 · J. W. Lindeberg, 1922