Adolphe Quetelet facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Adolphe Quetelet
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| Born |
Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet
22 February 1796 |
| Died | 17 February 1874 (aged 77) |
| Nationality | Belgian |
| Alma mater | University of Ghent |
| Known for | contributions to social physics |
| Awards | ForMemRS (1839) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | astronomer mathematician statistician sociologist |
| Institutions | Brussels Observatory |
| Influences | Joseph Fourier Pierre-Simon Laplace |
Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet (born February 22, 1796 – died February 17, 1874) was a Belgian astronomer, mathematician, statistician, and sociologist. He is famous for starting and leading the Brussels Observatory. He also helped bring statistics into the study of social sciences. His name is sometimes spelled Quételet.
He also created the science of anthropometry, which is about measuring human characteristics. He developed the body mass index (BMI) scale, which was first called the Quetelet Index. His work on measuring people to find the "average man" (l'homme moyen) was very important.
Biography
Adolphe Quetelet was born in Ghent, which was part of the French Republic at the time. His father was French, and his mother was Flemish. Adolphe was the fifth of nine children.
His father died when Adolphe was only seven years old. Adolphe went to school in Ghent and started teaching mathematics there in 1815 when he was 19. In 1819, he moved to Brussels. That same year, he earned his doctorate degree in mathematics from the University of Ghent.
Soon after, young Adolphe worked hard to convince government officials and others to build an observatory in Brussels. He succeeded, and the observatory was built in 1828. He became a member of the Royal Academy in 1820. He also taught at a science museum and a military school in Belgium.
Quetelet also started several journals and groups focused on statistics. He really wanted statisticians from different countries to work together. He helped create a statistics section for the British Association for the Advancement of Science, which later became the Royal Statistical Society. He was the first international member of this society. In 1853, he led the first First International Statistical Congress, a big meeting for statisticians from around the world.
In 1855, Quetelet had a stroke, which made it harder for him to work. However, he still continued his scientific studies.
He passed away in Brussels on February 17, 1874, and is buried in the Brussels Cemetery. In 1825, he married Cécile-Virginie Curtet.
Work
Adolphe Quetelet studied many different scientific areas. These included meteorology (weather), astronomy, mathematics, statistics, demography (population studies), sociology, criminology (the study of crime), and the history of science. He made many important contributions to science. He also wrote books for the general public.
He founded the Royal Observatory of Belgium. He also helped start several national and international groups and journals for statistics. He led the first series of international statistics meetings.
Social Physics
At the time, the new sciences of probability and statistics were mostly used in astronomy. Scientists used them to understand measurement errors. Quetelet was one of the first people to use statistics to study social science. He called this new field "social physics." He knew that social events were very complex and involved many things that needed to be measured.
His most famous book was Sur l'homme et le développement de ses facultés, ou Essai de physique sociale, published in 1835. In this book, he explained his idea of "social physics." He also described his idea of the "average man" (l'homme moyen). This "average man" was based on the average values of many measured human traits. He collected a lot of information about these traits. Quetelet thought of these average values as "ideals." His ideas about the "average man" later influenced others who studied human traits.
One of Quetelet's students, Pierre François Verhulst, created the logistic function in the 1830s. This was a mathematical model to show how populations grow.
Another famous thinker, Auguste Comte, had also used the term 'social physics'. When he found out Quetelet was using it too, Comte decided to create a new word: 'sociologie' (sociology). He did this because he disagreed with Quetelet's idea that you could understand society just by collecting statistics.
Adolphe Quetelet also had a big impact on Florence Nightingale, who was a famous nurse. She believed that understanding statistics could help reveal God's work and also help with good management. Nightingale met Quetelet in person in 1860 and they wrote letters to each other for many years.
Criminology
Quetelet was an important person in the study of criminology. Along with Andre-Michel Guerry, he helped create new ways to study crime using statistics. By looking at data, Quetelet learned about the connections between crime and other social factors. For example, he found strong links between a person's age and gender and their likelihood of committing crimes. He also found that factors like climate, poverty, education, and drinking alcohol could influence crime. He shared his findings in his research.
Anthropometry
In his 1835 book on social physics, Quetelet showed that human traits vary around an average. He found that these traits often followed a normal curve. This idea that people have natural differences was important for later scientists, like Charles Darwin. It showed that there was enough variety in human populations for natural selection to happen.
One of Quetelet's most lasting contributions was creating a simple way to classify a person's weight compared to their height. His idea, the body mass index (BMI), or Quetelet index, is still used today. Information about human measurements (anthropometric data) is used in many modern ways, including when designing products for people.
Awards and Honours
Quetelet was chosen as a Foreign Member of the Royal Society in 1839.
An asteroid called 1239 Queteleta is named after him. There is also a special professor title at Columbia University called the Quetelet professor, named in his honor.
See also
In Spanish: Adolphe Quetelet para niños
