William Sealy Gosset
William Sealy Gosset was a famous English statistician. He worked for Guinness brewery in Ireland.
He created new ways to analyze small sets of data. He wrote his findings under the name "Student". His most famous work is the "Student's t-distribution".[1]
Life
[change | change source]William was born in Canterbury, England. He went to school at Winchester College and then studied natural sciences and mathematics at New College, Oxford.
He had three kids: Harry, Bertha Marian, and Ruth.
Work
[change | change source]At the brewery, William made new ways to test and improve beer quality using statistics. He learned these methods by studying, trying different things, and working with other experts.[2] He wrote about his findings, but because of a rule at Guinness, he couldn't use his real name or mention beer. So, he wrote under the name "Student". This is why his famous "t-distribution" is called "Student's" instead of "Gosset's".[3]
Relationship with Fisher
[change | change source]Another statistician, Ronald A. Fisher, noticed the value of William's work. They wrote many letters to each other. Fisher helped William improve his methods, and they both shared their findings.
In 1935, William became the main brewer for a new Guinness brewery in London. He died in 1937 from a heart attack.
People remembered William as a kind man who made big contributions to statistics. He was friends with both Pearson and Fisher.
Legacy
[change | change source]William's methods are still used today in statistics. For example, the "studentized range" is a way to compare data points. It was introduced by William in 1927 and is still important in modern statistics.
References
[change | change source]- ↑ Ziliak, Stephen T. (2008). "Retrospectives: Guinnessometrics: The Economic Foundation of "Student's" T". Journal of Economic Perspectives. 22 (4): 199–216. doi:10.1257/jep.22.4.199.
- ↑ Ziliak, S.; D. McCloskey (2008). The Cult of Statistical Significance: How the Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice, and Lives. University of Michigan Press. doi:10.3998/mpub.186351. ISBN 978-0-472-07007-7.
- ↑ "BIOGRAPHY 12.1 William S. Gosset (1876–1937)". Archived from the original on 4 February 2012. Retrieved 11 January 2015. The site cites Dictionary of Scientific Biography (New York: Scribner's, 1972), pp. 476–477; International Encyclopedia of Statistics, vol. I (New York: Free Press, 1978), pp. 409–413.