Mathematician:Benjamin Gompertz

Mathematician

British self-educated mathematician and actuary, best known for his Gompertz Law of Mortality, a demographic model published in $1825$.

Nationality

English, of Dutch ancestry

History

• Born: 5 March 1779 in London, England
• Died: 14 July 1865 in London, England

Theorems and Definitions

• Gompertz Law of Mortality
• Gompertz-Makeham Law of Mortality (with William Matthew Makeham) (a refinement of the Gompertz Law of Mortality)

• Gompertz Curve
• Gompertz Distribution
• Gompertz Function
• Gompertz Term

• Euler-Gompertz Constant (with Leonhard Paul Euler) (also known as the Gompertz Constant)

Results named for Benjamin Gompertz can be found here.

Definitions of concepts named for Benjamin Gompertz can be found here.

Publications

• 1822: Theory of astronomical instruments
• 1825: A new instrument called the differential sextant
• 1825: On the Nature of the Function Expressive of the Law of Human Mortality, and on a New Mode of Determining the Value of Life Contingencies (Phil. Trans. Vol. 115: pp. 513 – 585)
• 1829: On the converted pendulum
• 1850: Hints on Porisms

Sources

• John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson: "Benjamin Gompertz": MacTutor History of Mathematics archive