Francis Galton
Sir Francis Galton (16 February 1822 – 17 January 1911) was an English Victorian era statistician that produced over 340 papers and books, and invented the quincunx pattern, which is fundamental to the Galton Board.
He also created the statistical concept of correlation and widely promoted regression toward the mean. He was the first to apply statistical methods to the study of human differences and inheritance of intelligence, and introduced the use of questionnaires and surveys for collecting data on humans.
Galton invented the use of the regression line and for the choice of r (for reversion or regression) to represent the correlation coefficient.
On a personal note, he was knighted in 1909, and was Charles Darwin’s half-cousin.
Influences
- Charles Darwin
Influenced
Links
Books
- A Life of Sir Francis Galton: From African Exploration to the Birth of Eugenics
- Hereditary Genius
- Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development
- Natural Inheritance
- Probability, the Foundation of Eugenics
- Francis Galton: The Life and Work of a Victorian Genius
- Extreme Measures: The Dark Visions and Bright Ideas of Francis Galton
