Adolphe Quetelet: Prophet of the New Statistics,
Abstract
Adolphe Quetelet (1796-1874) was born in Ghent and was eventually a professor at the University there teaching mathematics, astronomy, geology, physics and history of science. He was almost entirely responsible for the Royal Observatory in Brussels being built in 1826, and became its director in 1828. An able mathematician, he was concerned also with the collection of data. In 1829 he drew up the plans for the Belgian census and in 1841 created the Central Statistical Commission. On a visit to London in 1834 he became one of the founders of the London (later Royal) Statistical Society and was the first foreign member elected to the American Statistical Association when it began in 1839. He devoted his whole life to showing how probability and statistical techniques could be utilized in the development of scientific research and in government administration. At the meeting of the British Statistical Association in 1841 he listed more than forty topics which he thought should be investigated using statistical methods -- including anthropology, criminal justice, meteorology, agriculture, zoology and man. He was the first bridge over the gap between theory and practice of statistics and did much to create our modern statistical practices. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 1980
- Accession Number
- ADA084771
Entities
People
- F. N. David
Organizations
- University of California, Berkeley