Underwood Dudley

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Template:Short description Script error: No such module "Unsubst". Template:CS1 config Underwood Dudley (born January 6, 1937) is an American mathematician and writer. His popular works include several books describing crank mathematics by pseudomathematicians who incorrectly believe they have squared the circle or done other impossible things.

He is the discoverer of the Dudley triangle.[1][2]

Education and career

Dudley was born in 1937, in New York City.[3] He received bachelor's and master's degrees from the Carnegie Institute of Technology and a PhD from the University of Michigan.[3][4] His 1965 doctoral dissertation, The Distribution Modulo 1 of Oscillating Functions, was supervised by William J. LeVeque.[5]

His academic career consisted of two years at Ohio State University followed by 37 years at DePauw University, from which he retired in 2004. He edited the College Mathematics Journal and the Pi Mu Epsilon Journal, and was a Pólya Lecturer for the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) for two years.[4]

He chaired the Indiana Section of the Mathematical Association of America twice, and in 2004 received the section's Meritorious Service Award.[6]

He may be best known for a series of books written for the general audience about pseudomathematics. They are based on his collection of "crank" material sent to mathematics departments from people who believe they have done mathematical tasks that have been proved to be impossible, such as performing angle trisection, or who believe in numerology.

Publications

Dudley is the author of books including:

  • Elementary Number Theory (1969; 2nd ed. 1978)[7]
  • A Budget of Trisections (1987); revised as The Trisectors (1994)[8]
  • Mathematical Cranks (1992)[9]
  • Numerology: Or, What Pythagoras Wrought (1997)[10]
  • The Magic Numbers of the Professor (with Owen O'Shea, 2007)[11]
  • A Guide to Elementary Number Theory (2009)[12]

His edited volumes include:

  • Readings for Calculus (1993)[13]
  • Is Mathematics Inevitable? A Miscellany (2008)[14]

Dudley won the Trevor Evans Award for expository writing from the Mathematical Association of America in 1996, for his 1994 paper, "Why history?", on why mathematicians should care about the history of mathematics.[15]

Lawsuit

In 1995, Dudley was one of several people sued by William Dilworth for defamation because Mathematical Cranks included an analysis of Dilworth's "A correction in set theory",[16] an attempted refutation of Cantor's diagonal method. The suit was dismissed in 1996 due to failure to state a claim.

The dismissal was upheld on appeal in a decision written by judge Richard Posner. From the decision: "A crank is a person inexplicably obsessed by an obviously unsound idea—a person with a bee in his bonnet. To call a person a crank is to say that because of some quirk of temperament he is wasting his time pursuing a line of thought that is plainly without merit or promise ... To call a person a crank is basically just a colorful and insulting way of expressing disagreement with his master idea, and it therefore belongs to the language of controversy rather than to the language of defamation."[17][18]

References

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  1. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
  2. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  3. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  4. ↑ a b Author biography (p. 166) from The magic numbers of the professor, AMS/MAA Spectrum, vol. 57, 2007.
  5. ↑ Template:PAGENAMEBASE at the Mathematics Genealogy ProjectTemplate:EditAtWikidata
  6. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  7. ↑ Elementary Number Theory, W.H. Freeman, 1969; 2nd ed., 1978, Template:ISBN. Reprinted by Dover Publications, 2008, Template:ISBN. Reviews: V. C. Harris, MRTemplate:Catalog lookup link; Merrill Barnebey, The American Mathematical Monthly, JSTOR 2318143; Carl Riehm, The American Mathematical Monthly, JSTOR 2318039; Terence Jackson, The Mathematical Gazette, JSTOR 3617915; Constantin P. Popovici, Bull. Math. Soc. Sci. Math. Romania, JSTOR 43679698.
  8. ↑ A Budget of Trisections, Springer-Verlag, 1987, Template:ISBN. Revised and republished as The Trisectors, Mathematical Association of America, 1994, Template:ISBN. Reviews: Cyril W. L. Garner, MRTemplate:Catalog lookup link; H. Germer, Template:Catalog lookup link, Template:Catalog lookup link; Doris Schattschneider, The College Mathematics Journal, JSTOR 2686276; Bruce King, The Mathematics Teacher, JSTOR 27969245; Ken Smith, The Mathematical Gazette, Script error: No such module "CS1 identifiers".; A. Robert Pargeter, The Mathematical Gazette, JSTOR 3618335.
  9. ↑ Mathematical Cranks, Mathematical Association of America, 1992, Template:ISBN. Reviews: David Singmaster, MRTemplate:Catalog lookup link; Ian Stewart, The American Mathematical Monthly, JSTOR 2325140; John N. Fujii, The Mathematics Teacher, JSTOR 27968419; Roger Webster, The Mathematical Gazette, JSTOR 3620224; Robert Matthews, NewScientist, "Going nuts over numbers".
  10. ↑ Numerology: Or, What Pythagoras Wrought, MAA Spectrum 19, Mathematical Association of America, 1997, Template:ISBN. German translation, Birkhäuser, 1999. Reviews: E. J. Barbeau, MRTemplate:Catalog lookup link, Template:Catalog lookup link; K.-B.Gundlach, Template:Catalog lookup link; Jerry Lenz, The Mathematics Teacher, JSTOR 27970789; Steve Abbott, The Mathematical Gazette, JSTOR 3619082; Walter S. Sizer, MAA Reviews; Jeff Ondich, The American Mathematical Monthly, JSTOR 2589015.
  11. ↑ The Magic Numbers of the Professor, MAA Spectrum 57, Mathematical Association of America, 2007, Template:ISBN. Reviews: Hansueli Hösli, Template:Catalog lookup link; John Baylis, The Mathematical Gazette, JSTOR 27821915; Ioana Mihaila, MAA Reviews; Charles Ashbacher, Journal of Recreational Mathematics, Template:ProQuest; Paul Belcher, Mathematical Spectrum, Template:EBSCOhost.
  12. ↑ A Guide to Elementary Number Theory, Dolciani Mathematical Expositions 41, Mathematical Association of America, 2009, Template:ISBN. Reviews: Thomas Stoll, MRTemplate:Catalog lookup link; Franz Lemmermeyer, Template:Catalog lookup link; Perla Myers, The Mathematics Teacher, JSTOR 20876870; Song Yan, ACM SIGACT News, Script error: No such module "CS1 identifiers".; Mehdi Hassani, MAA Reviews.
  13. ↑ Readings for Calculus, MAA Notes 31, Mathematical Association of America, 1993, Template:ISBN. Reviews: Helen E. Salzberg & Barry Schiller, The Mathematics Teacher, JSTOR 27968591; Tony Gardiner, The Mathematical Gazette, JSTOR 3620223.
  14. ↑ Is Mathematics Inevitable? A Miscellany, Mathematical Association of America, 2008, Template:ISBN. Reviews: Franka Miriam Bruckler, Template:Catalog lookup link; José de Oliveira Guimarães, ACM SIGACT News, Script error: No such module "CS1 identifiers".; Scott H. Brown, The Mathematics Teacher, JSTOR 20876386; Chris Arney, Mathematics and Computer Education, Template:ProQuest; Paul Belcher, Mathematical Spectrum, Template:EBSCOhost; D. Robbins, Choice, Template:EBSCOhost.
  15. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".; Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  16. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  17. ↑ Caselaw: United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit, ruling on Dillworth vs. Dudley, 1996
  18. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".

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Further reading

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  • Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".; includes a photograph of Dudley in 1979 at Wabash College

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