X-Nico

unusual facts about Friedrich Bessel


Bessel's correction

In statistics, Bessel's correction, named after Friedrich Bessel, is the use of n − 1 instead of n in the formula for the sample variance and sample standard deviation, where n is the number of observations in a sample: it corrects the bias in the estimation of the population variance, and some (but not all) of the bias in the estimation of the population standard deviation.


Stellar parallax

The first successful measurements of stellar parallax were made by Friedrich Bessel in 1838 for the star 61 Cygni using a heliometer.


see also