What did our parents do to kill boredom before the internet?
I asked my 26 brothers and sisters and they didn't know either
Author:DwightKSchnuteAdolphe QueteletDied 17 Feb 1874 at age 77 (born 22 Feb 1796). Lambert-Adolphe-Jacques Quetelet was a Belgian astronomer, statistician, mathematician and sociologist whose career began teaching mathematics at the Athenaeum, Brussels (1820), while also pursuing the study of astronomy from 1823. Quetelet was instrumental in setting up, and became the director of, a newly equipped Brussels Royal Observatory (opened 1833). From 1825, he began writing papers on social statistics, and in 1835 gained international recognition for publication of Sur l'homme et le developpement de ses facultés, essai d'une physique sociale. Whereas the normal curve had previously been applied to error correction, Quetelet used it to illustrate a distribution of measured human traits about the central value, giving the concept of the average man at the peak. In this way, for example, he applied a statistical view to the nature of criminal behaviour in society.«Image: from a 1974 Belgian postage stamp. |
