- Frank Benford
Infobox_Scientist
name = Frank Albert Benford, Jr.
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birth_date =29 May 1883
birth_place = Johnstown,Pennsylvania
death_date =4 December 1948
death_place = Schenectady,New York
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field =Electrical Engineering Physics
work_institution =General Electric
alma_mater =University of Michigan
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known_for =Benford's Law
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footnotes =Frank Albert Benford, Jr., (
29 May 1883 Johnstown,Pennsylvania - 1948) was an American electrical engineer and physicist best known for rediscovering and generalizingBenford's Law , a statistical statement about the occurrence of digits in lists of data.Benford is also known for having devised, in 1937, an instrument for measuring the refractive index of glass. An expert in optical measurements, he published 109 papers in the fields of optics and mathematics and was granted 20 patents on optical devices.
His date of birth is given variously as
29 May or10 July 1883 . After graduating from theUniversity of Michigan in 1910, Benford worked forGeneral Electric , first in the Illuminating Engineering Laboratory for 18 years, then the Research Laboratory for 20 years until retiring in July of 1948. He died suddenly at his home on4 December 1948 .
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