Talk:John Tukey

	Biography portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography articles
	This article is supported by the science and academia work group (assessed as Low-importance).

Mathematics Mid‑priority

	Mathematics portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Mathematics, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of mathematics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.MathematicsWikipedia:WikiProject MathematicsTemplate:WikiProject Mathematicsmathematics articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-priority on the project's priority scale.

Statistics High‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Statistics, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of statistics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.StatisticsWikipedia:WikiProject StatisticsTemplate:WikiProject StatisticsStatistics articles
High	This article has been rated as High-importance on the importance scale.

Systems High‑importance

	Systems science portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Systems, which collaborates on articles related to systems and systems science.SystemsWikipedia:WikiProject SystemsTemplate:WikiProject SystemsSystems articles
High	This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale.
	This article is within the field of Control theory.

United States Low‑importance

	United States portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions. Template Usage Articles Requested! Become a Member Project Talk Alerts United StatesWikipedia:WikiProject United StatesTemplate:WikiProject United StatesUnited States articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Invention of the word "software"[edit]

It is sometimes claimed that Tukey coined the word software in the computing context in 1958. This seems to be based on a misinterpretation of Shapiro's 2000 article. The word "hardware" had been used in the computing context since at least 1947 and it is unlikely that "software" was not coined until 1958. Nurg 11:11, 12 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Please note that there is an ambiguity between this page which says: Tukey used the term "software" in a computing context in a 1958 article

and page "Software" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software which says: The term "software" was first used in this sense by John W. Tukey in 1957.

Was tonights Jeopardy final question (Jan 12. 2011) wrong then when it claimed that Tukey coined the term software??? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.74.194.222 (talk) 01:01, 13 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Bit[edit]

If Tukey first used "bit" did he use it as a contraction of "binary integer" as stated in this article or "binary digit" as is commonly though and as it is understood to mean now? citation? TomViza 02:08, 8 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

This is what Oxford English Dictionary says: "1948 C. E. SHANNON in Bell Syst. Techn. Jrnl. July 380 The choice of a logarithmic base corresponds to the choice of a unit for measuring information. If the base 2 is used the resulting units may be called binary digits, or more briefly bits, a word suggested by J. W. Tukey." 169.229.157.58 19:17, 19 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Known For[edit]

All I did was add that Tukey was known for teh Box Plot. Nothing big. If you really want to debate it, go ahead. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Bolinstephen (talk • contribs) 00:03, 2 February 2007 (UTC).[reply]

Tukey's lemma[edit]

Tukey's lemma states, "Each nonempty family of finite character has a maximal element". This lemma is equivalent to the axiom of choice. Might someone care to expound on this in the main article? See [1]. DFH 19:33, 23 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

This is also known as the Teichmüller-Tukey lemma because Oswald Teichmüller (1913-1943) had arrived at it independently in 1939. See [2]. DFH 19:38, 23 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Pronunciation?[edit]

How did Tukey pronounce his surname? Was it (for example) TOO-key or TEW-key?

RickD88 23:30, 19 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

If by TEW-key you mean a pronunciation like TYOO-kee, with a y glide preceding the first vowel, no, he did not pronounce it that way. (He was, after all, an American, and Americans generally do not use a y glide with long u sounds following a t.) As a former student of his, I can tell you that he pronounced his name TOO-kee. To be more precise, the pronunciation of his last name in International Phonetic Alphabet transcription would be [ˈtu ki], not [ˈtju ki]. See IPA chart for English or Help:IPA for a pronunciation key.

--DavisSta (talk) 05:19, 16 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Quote on randomization[edit]

I remember reading Tukey's response to some (misguided) Bayesian arguments that down-playing the importance of randomization (which seem to have been crushed by Donald Rubin, etc.): "If you don't randomize, then you are a damn fool [or damned fool]." This quote might be suitable for the quotes section, if anybody would please locate the source? Kiefer.Wolfowitz (talk) 12:55, 3 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Alleged 1956 Usage of "Software"[edit]

The print version of the 1956 Hathi Trust source alleged to contain the word "software" in fact uses "software" to mean "people." Although this is an interesting usage analogous to the common usage of "software" to mean "computer program," it clearly does not displace Tukey's status as first known user (Paul Niquette's claim, based on uncorroborated memories many decades old, should not be taken seriously). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.36.100.29 (talk) 02:14, 5 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Discussions with Feynman[edit]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj4y0EUlU-Y&hd=1 --5.54.61.94 (talk) 12:21, 9 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

sources for quotations?[edit]

The section on Tukey's quotations is completely unsourced. Someone should try to find references.--Declaration1776 (talk) 03:50, 24 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified[edit]

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on John Tukey. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

Corrected formatting/usage for http://computer.org/annals/an2000/pdf/a2069.pdf

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at {{Sourcecheck}}).

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 18 January 2022).

If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—^{cyberbot II}_{Talk to my owner:Online} 16:35, 1 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified[edit]

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on John Tukey. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 18 January 2022).

If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 03:09, 26 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified[edit]

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 2 external links on John Tukey. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 18 January 2022).

If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 02:28, 29 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

A. D. Gordon[edit]

The quotation source is probably [3], and the authors of that article probably had direct communication with A. D. Gordon since the latter was also affiliated with the same university (see e.g. [4]).

kinsey report quote[edit]

A cherry picked favorable quote for Tukey's (actually a committee's) assessment of the Kinsey report. I added a quote from the NYT's obit. https://www.york.ac.uk/depts/maths/histstat/tukey_nytimes.htm 2601:640:8980:7D60:B100:C257:A069:5B0F (talk) 08:33, 28 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]