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I am studying moments of expectation, and seen the formulas for computing the moments. There is one thing I am not clear of, and not getting answer for that.

Why moments are named as moments? To my understanding, the word "moment" has relationship with time, so what is the role of time in computing expectation moments?

Osman Khalid
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    Because they appear in mechanics with a similar formula. Let me see if I can dig up the Wikipedia page where this is elaborated upon. Well, the EOM page explains it at the start. – the gods from engineering Apr 23 '15 at 08:38
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    Safe for not having citations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variance#Moment_of_inertia explains the relationship (in the case of the 2nd order moments). – the gods from engineering Apr 23 '15 at 08:45
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    As Respawned Fluff says, this is not "moment" as in "moment in time" but "moment" as in "moment of inertia"; the etymology traces back to the same root as "movement" and "momentum." The relationship to moments in time is actually the weirder one (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=moment). In general things acquire weird names for historical reasons and it's not worth worrying too much about them. – Qiaochu Yuan Apr 23 '15 at 09:23

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