Standard deviation

Name: Doug

Who is asking: Student
Level: All

Question:
I was wondering if anybody knows who the founder of standard deviation was???

Hi Doug,

In Earliest Known Uses of Some of the Words of Mathematics the term standard deviation is attributed to Karl Pearson.

The term STANDARD DEVIATION was introduced by Karl Pearson (1857-1936) in 1893, "although the idea was by then nearly a century old" (Abbott; Stigler, page 328).

Cheers,
Penny Go to Math Central