Crackpot index

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.[1][2]

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 −5.[3] An earlier version only had 17 questions with point values for each ranging from 1 to 40.[4]

Presumably any positive value of the index indicates crankiness.

Though the index was not proposed as a serious method, it nevertheless has become popular in Internet discussions of whether a claim or an individual is cranky, particularly in physics (e.g., at the Usenet newsgroup sci.physics), or in mathematics.

Chris Caldwell's Prime Pages has a version adapted to prime number research[5] which is a field with many famous unsolved problems that are easy to understand for amateur mathematicians.

Gruenberger's measure for crackpots

An earlier crackpot index is Fred J. Gruenberger's "A Measure for Crackpots"[6] published in December 1962 by the RAND Corporation.

gollark: That is not me.
gollark: The policy is very clear.
gollark: > You agree that your mind, thoughts, soul and other distinguishing characteristics may be repurposed/utilized at any time for the training of GPT-██ or other artificial intelligences at the discretion of the PotatOS Advanced Projects team. You also agree that your soul may be temporarily[6] be placed into various apioformic entities (see Appendix 6.7) for various purposes³. You can opt out of this by being soulless and an empty husk of what you once were. You are permitted to maintain consciousness as long as this does not negatively affect PotatOS™ operations. You agree that you either are a robot or may be converted into one if it is deemed necessary.
gollark: The potatOS privacy policy supersedes it, and in any case I'm not a company/organization/whatever.
gollark: <@319753218592866315> please persistently store pingwhens in case of bot outages.

See also

References
  1. Hubbard, Douglas W. (2009-04-27). The Failure of Risk Management: Why It's Broken and How to Fix It. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9780470387955.
  2. Staff, Wired. "Every field of study deserves its own Crackpot Index". WIRED. Retrieved 2018-07-17.
  3. "Crackpot index". math.ucr.edu. Retrieved 2018-07-17.
  4. "Crackpot index". 1996-11-10. Retrieved 2018-07-17.
  5. Chris Caldwell. "The PrimeNumbers' Crackpot index". Retrieved October 23, 2007.
  6. Fred J. Gruenberger. "A Measure for Crackpots" (PDF).
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