Crackpot index: Difference between revisions

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The '''crackpot index''' is a number that rates scientific claims or the individuals that make them, in conjunction with a method for computing that number. While the indices have been created for their humorous value, their general concepts can be applied in other fields like risk management.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eXPCBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA137&lpg=PA137&dqq=%22crackpot+index%22#v=onepage&qpg=%22crackpot%20index%22&f=falsePA137|title=The Failure of Risk Management: Why It's Broken and How to Fix It|last=Hubbard|first=Douglas W.|date=2009-04-27|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=9780470387955|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.wired.com/2006/01/every_field_of_/|title=Every field of study deserves its own Crackpot Index|last=Staff|first=Wired|work=WIRED|access-date=2018-07-17|language=en-US}}</ref>

== Baez's crackpot index ==

The method, proposed semi-seriously by mathematical physicist [[John C. Baez]] in 1992, computes an index by responses to a list of 36 questions, each positive response contributing a point value ranging from 1 to 50. The computation is initialized with a value of &minus;5.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/crackpot.html|title=Crackpot index|website=math.ucr.edu|access-date=2018-07-17}}</ref> An earlier version only had 17 questions with point values for each ranging from 1 to 40.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/crackpot.html|title=Crackpot index|date=1996-11-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19961110050053/http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/crackpot.html|title=Crackpot index|access-date=19962018-1107-1017|accessarchive-date=20181996-0711-1710}}</ref>

Presumably any positive value of the index indicates crankiness.

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== Gruenberger's measure for crackpots ==

An earlier crackpot index is Fred J. Gruenberger's "A Measure for Crackpots"<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/papers/2006/P2678.pdf|format=PDF|title=A Measure for Crackpots|author=Fred J. Gruenberger}}</ref> published in December 1962 by the [[RAND Corporation]].

==See also==