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Astro*Dictionary by Michael Erlewine

 

 

 

 

1 article for "Quetelet"

Quetelet, Lambert Adolphe Jacques [Astro*Index]

(ket-lay')

(1796-1874) Born at Gent; died at Brussels. Belgian astronomer and statistician.

Studied mathematics under Laplace, was professor of mathematics at Gent University, supervised construction of the Royal Observatory at Brussels, becoming its directory in 1828. He applied statistical methods to the study of humans, recording the chest measurements of Scottish soldiers, the height of French army draftees, etc. His results were graphed, showing frequency of occurrence versus measurements; the result was the bell-shaped curve, which is often called the Gaussian Curve, because of its frequent use by Gauss.

See also:
♦ Laplace, Pierre Simon

 

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