Frank Benford
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Frank Albert Benford Jr. | |
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| Born | May 29, 1883 |
| Died | December 4, 1948 (aged 65) |
| Alma mater | University of Michigan |
| Known for | Benford's Law |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Electrical Engineering Physics |
| Institutions | General Electric |
Frank Albert Benford Jr. (July 10, 1883[1] – December 4, 1948) was an American electrical engineer and physicist best known for rediscovering and generalizing Benford's Law, a statistical statement about the occurrence of digits in lists of data.[2]
Benford is also known for having devised, in 1937, an instrument for measuring the refractive index of glass.[1] An expert in optical measurements, he published 109 papers in the fields of optics and mathematics and was granted 20 patents on optical devices.
Early life[edit]
He was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.[1] His date of birth is given variously as May 29 or July 10, 1883.[1] At the age of 6 his family home was destroyed by the Johnstown Flood.[1]
Education[edit]
He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1910.
Career[edit]
Benford worked for General Electric, first in the Illuminating Engineering Laboratory for 18 years, then the Research Laboratory for 20 years until retiring in July 1948. He was working as a research physicist when he made the rediscovery of Benford's law, and spent years collecting data before publishing in 1938, citing more than 20,000 values from a diverse set of sources including statistics from baseball, atomic weights, the areas of rivers and numbering of articles in magazines.[3]
Death[edit]
He died suddenly at his home on December 4, 1948.
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d e The Michigan Alumnus. Vol. 46. UM Libraries. 1939. p. 81.
- ^ Frank Benford (March 1938). "The law of anomalous numbers". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 78 (4): 551–572. JSTOR 984802. (subscription required)
- ^ Smith, Steven W. (1997). The Scientist and Engineer's Guide to Digital Signal Processing (PDF). San Diego, California: California Technical Publishing. p. 701.
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