Gina Eberth
Period 4
Statistics Project: William Sealy Gosset aka “Student”
William Sealy Gosset, otherwise known as Student, was a statistician born in Canterbury,
England. Born on June 13, 1876 and dying on October 16, 1937, Gosset had many accomplishments and
achievements throughout his life. He attended the Winchester College where he enjoyed shooting as his
hobby. It wasn’t until he attended the New College in Oxford that he began to study chemistry and
mathematics. While at New College he studied under Airy, and obtained a First Class degree in
mathematics in 1897 and one in chemistry two years later. After graduating from New College, he
acquired a job as a chemist with the Arthur Guinness Son and Company brewery in 1899. This is where
his important work in statistics begun. In 1905 he began to work with Karl Pearson (another famous
statistician) in London at the Galton Eugenics Laboratory at University College. While working in this lab,
Gosset published three important papers from his research and testing done in the lab with Pearson. So
what makes his research important? Why do people still known about Gosset and his statistical
accomplishments? It was his invention of the t-test and t-distribution that made his claim to fame.
While working with Guinness, Gosset realized that this brewery needed a more accurate
statistical analysis for a variety of processes including: barley productions, yeast fermentation, selection
of best yielding barley varieties. So in the three papers he published after working with Pearson, he
came to the conclusion of inventing the t-test and t-distribution. These two tests are highly valued in the
world of mathematics. The t-distribution is a continuous probability distribution that emerges when the
mean of a normally distributed population and when the sample size is very small. The t-distribution is a
symmetric bell-shaped, like a normal distributions, but has heavier tails. These tails mean that they are
more prone to producing values that fall far from its mean. This makes it useful for understanding the
statistical behavior of certain types of ratios of random quantities where the variation in the
denominator is amplified and may produce outlying values when the denominator ratio falls close to
zero. This plays a role in the Gosset’s t-test as well. These two tests related and need each other in order
to work properly. The t-test is used for assessing the statistical significance of the difference between
two mean samples, the construction of confidence intervals for the difference between two population
means, and in linear regression analysis. This test was created to handle small samples for quality
control in brewing. He discovered the form of the t distribution by a combination of mathematical and
empirical work with random numbers. This is now known as an early application of the Monte-Carlo
method. There are many uses for the t-test. Some include: a one sample location test of whether the
mean of a normally distributed population has a value specified in a null hypothesis and when a test of
whether the slope of a regression line differs significantly from zero. Both the t-test and t-distribution
were very helpful to the Guinness brewing company and are now very helpful in the field of statistics.
Many people do not know William Sealy Gosset, but they know his by his publishing name
Student. Gosset had to publish his work under this name. This was because another researcher at
Guinness had previously published a paper containing trade secrets of the Guinness Brewery. To prevent
further disclosure of the confidential information, the Guinness Company prohibited its employees from
publishing any papers regardless of the contained information. They wanted to ensure that no one
would know any secrets about the brewing process, ingredients, or overall trade secrets of the
company. That meant that Gosset could not publish any work that he had been working on in the lab
with Pearson. Therefor Gosset used a pseudonym “Student” for all his publications to avoid detection
by his employer. Thus all of his most famous achievements are not commonly recognized by the name
Gosset. His t-distribution is also often referred to as “Student’s T-Distribution.”
From 1922 Gosset acquired a statistical assistant at the brewery, and gradually built up a small
statistic department which Gosset ran until 1934. He stopped running this department in 1934 because
he got into a horrible motor accident. This accident confined Gosset to bed for three months, leaving
him unable to concentrate on statistics. It was a year before he was fully recovered. In 1935 he left
Ireland to take charge of a new Guinness brewery in London. Despite everything Gosset had been
through, he continued to publish statistical papers until the end of his life. Gosset will always be
remembered for his great accomplishments with the t-test and t-distribution.
McMullen, who was a personal friend, describes Gosset in [8] as follows:... he was very kindly and tolerant and absolutely devoid of malice. He rarely spoke about
personal matters but when he did his opinion was well worth listening to and not in the least
superficial.
He is described in [2] as follows:He was much beloved by all those with whom he worked and by a select circle of professional
and personal friends, who revered him as one of the most modest, gentle, and brave of men,
unconventional, yet abundantly tolerant in all his thoughts and ways. Also he loved sailing and
fishing, and invented the angler's self-controlled craft described in the 'Field' of March 28, 1936.
Article by: J J O'Connor and E F Robertson
Writing in [8], McMullen says:To many in the statistical world "Student" was regarded as a statistical advisor to Guinness's
brewery, to others he appeared to be a brewer devoting his spare time to statistics. ... though
there is some truth in both these ideas they miss the central point, which was the intimate
connection between his statistical research and the practical problems on which he was
engaged. ... "Student" did a very large quantity of ordinary routine as well as his statistical work
in the brewery, and all that in addition to consultative statistical work and to preparing his
various published papers.
Resources:
http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Gosset.html