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. The method, proposed (most likely as a joke) by mathematical physicist [[John Baez]] in 1998, computes an index by responses to a list of 3534 stepsquestions, each withpositive response contributing a point value ranging from 1 to 50,. exceptforThe thecomputation firstis step which initializes the computationinitialized with a value of -5. Each step may be applied more than once.
Presumably any positive value of the index indicates crankiness.
Though the index was nevernot proposed as a serious method (indeed some of the indicators are either too specific or too vague), it nevertheless has becomeoften widelybeen usedcited in settling issuesdiscussions of whether a claim or an individual is [[crank_(person)|crank]]y, particularly in [[physics]].
