As I know, the central moment or other moments in mathematics are used for some features of a distribution functions such as the mean, variance and skewness. However, what is the origin of the moment in mathematics? Moreover, what is the relation between the moment in mathematics and physics?
cannot answer this question, but suggest you look some of Karl Pearson's writings on this, if you have not already. James Weber, Ph.D.
One should be a bit careful with the words here: as far as I know in physics one uses the concept of *moment* in the same sense as you do, but there is another important concept of *momentum*, so I guess the correct question would be whether (and if yes, how) could the notion of moment be related to that of momentum.
The term as used in statistics (late 19th century?) certainly was inspired by the use of the term in physics whch goes back to Huygens and Euler in the 17th and 18th century. See wikipedia article on "moment of inertia"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moment_of_inertia
For example, there is this term called 'moment of inertia' in Physics. Actually, that is how the usage entered into Statistics.
Probability mass has similar properties with physical mass. See the attachment to visualize the situation.
Dear Costas,
This picture helps me to understand the relation between physical and probability masses. I am very grateful to you.
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