Jump to content

Donald Bentley

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Donald Lyon Bentley is an American statistician and mathematician.[1] A doctoral student of biostatistician Rupert Griel Miller at the Stanford University School of Humanities and Sciences,[2][3] Bentley graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy in Applied Mathematics and Statistics in 1962.[3][4] He then taught at the Mathematics and Statistics Department of Pomona College in Claremont, California from 1964 to 2001,[5] becoming Lingurn H. Burkhead Professor of Mathematics,[6] an endowed chair, before retiring to become a professor emeritus.[1] He was also president of the Southern California Chapter of the American Statistical Association from 1987 to 1988,[7] and was named a Fellow of the American Statistical Association in 1990.[8]

Bentley is known locally for his role in creating Pomona College's tradition of revering the number 47.[6][5] It began in the summer of 1964,[9] when two students, Laurie Mets and Bruce Elgin, conducted a research project seeking to find out whether the number occurs more often in nature than would be expected by chance. They documented various 47 sightings, and Bentley produced a false mathematical proof that 47 was equal to all other integers. The number became a meme among the class, which spread once the academic year began and snowballed over time.[10] Many Pomona alumni have since deliberately inserted 47 references into their work.[11] In the early 2010s, the college's clock tower would chime on the 47th minute of the hour.[12]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b "Donald Bentley". Pomona College. Retrieved November 30, 2021.
  2. ^ Donald Bentley at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  3. ^ a b "Donald Lyon Bentley". statistics.stanford.edu. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  4. ^ "Contributions to counter theory with applications to rod vision". searchworks.stanford.edu. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  5. ^ a b Kendall, Mark (November 14, 2012). "D.B. and That Number". Pomona College Magazine. Vol. 49, no. 1. Retrieved September 14, 2022.
  6. ^ a b Dolinar, Sarah (Fall 2000). "The Mystery of 47". Pomona College Magazine. Vol. 37, no. 1. Archived from the original on December 5, 2012.
  7. ^ "List of Presidents of the Southern California Chapter of the American Statistical Association". American Statistical Association. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  8. ^ "ASA Fellows". American Statistical Association. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  9. ^ "1964". Pomona College Timeline. Pomona College. Archived from the original on August 7, 2020. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
  10. ^ "The Mystery of 47". Pomona College Magazine. Spring 2015. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
  11. ^ Lipka, Sara (February 11, 2005). "Pomona's Prime Number". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Archived from the original on October 29, 2020. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
  12. ^ Rowan, Brendan (November 5, 2010). "Clock Tower Bell Set to Chime On the 47th Minute". The Student Life. Archived from the original on July 31, 2019. Retrieved April 7, 2019.