Florence Nightingale
Statistician, Florence Nightingale
GE127 Math I
Instructor: Mrs. Gretchen Anderson
ITT Technical Institute – Hilliard
11/11/2010
Michelle Bailey
Florence Nightingale
When most individuals think of math, they immediately go to the basics, algebra, geometry or even physics; I tend to always gravitate toward the statistics side of math. So when handed the assignment to research our most influential mathematician, I immediately thought of statistics and looked into who is known for their influential use of them. I must admit, I was surprised when the article by Miké Valerie, on Florence Nightingale, from Gale Encyclopedia, popped up on my search. I figured since we do have math class every week in the nursing education room, it was a sign and worth looking into further.
Florence Nightingale was born August 12, 1820, in Florence Italy, the city she was named after. She was the daughter of a wealthy, prominent English family in a time when it was inappropriate for women to work. However, he father taught her Italian, Latin, Greek, philosophy, history, writing and mathematics.
Even though she is more famously know for her contributions to the nursing profession, she continually compiled statistical data on death rates, and hospital conditions and used it for her causes. Inspiration for statistics was received from Adolphe Quetelet for his study in social physics, and William Farr for his analyses methods.
She is credited with developing the polar area diagram, similar to a circular histogram or pie chart. Charts which are common place today to show an abundance of data