Underwood Dudley

Who is Underwood Dudley?

Underwood Dudley is a mathematician, formerly of DePauw University, who has written a number of research works and textbooks but is best known for his popular writing. Most notable are several books describing crank mathematics by people who think they have squared the circle or done other impossible things. That sort of work is thrown away by most professionals, but Dudley has saved and analyzed it, calling it the folklore of mathematics.

He is the discoverer of the Dudley Triangle.

These books, which alternate between appreciation and exasperation, include The Trisectors, Mathematical Cranks, and Numerology: Or, What Pythagoras Wrought. They helped him win the Trevor Evans Award for expository writing from the Mathematical Association of America in 1996. Dudley has also written and edited straightforward mathematical works such as Readings for Calculus and Elementary Number Theory.

Dudley is a native of New York City. He received bachelor's and master's degrees from the Carnegie Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. His academic career consisted of two years at Ohio State University followed by thirty-seven at DePauw University, from which he retired in 2004. He has edited the College Mathematics Journal and the Pi Mu Epsilon Journal, and was a Polya Lecturer for the MAA for two years.