De Student-t-toets is een biertoets

Translated title of the contribution: The Student t-test is a beer test

Research output: Contribution to journalEditorialAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

The Student-t-test, one of the most used statistical tests in medicine, was developed by a beer brewer. From around 1900, the Irish Guinness brewery started recruiting scientists for the position of brewer in order to apply science to the production of beer in large quantities while maintaining consistency in terms of quality. One of these brewers was mathematician and chemist William Sealy Gosset (1876-1937). He developed statistical methods to deal with small sample surveys. Gosset's methods, and the accompanying t-distribution tables, enabled Guinness to take intelligent decisions about which ingredients to use, allowing them to produce high-quality beer that consistently tasted the same. Gosset wanted to publish his findings in scientific journals; however, the Guinness brewery was unwilling, as this could jeopardise their advantage over other breweries. They came to a compromise, in which Guinness allowed Gosset to publish his findings, as long as he used a pseudonym: Student. The Student's t-distribution remains one of the cornerstones of modern statistics.
Translated title of the contributionThe Student t-test is a beer test
Original languageDutch
Article numberD3204
Number of pages4
JournalNederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde
Volume162
Publication statusPublished - 30 Aug 2018

Keywords

  • Beer/history standards statistics & numerical data
  • History, 20th Century
  • Humans
  • Quality Control
  • Statistics as Topic/history

Cite this