[zahlman]

> The source I linked to above cites Mathematical Cranks by Underwood Dudley, but I couldn’t find it in the book.

I don't know why someone would make an AI slop fake of old mathematical crankery, but I think that has to be considered as a possibility. Especially given that the formula is being attributed to Dudley, who was actually cataloguing the nonsense of others.

(Also, a conventional Internet search tells me that Dudley was born in 1937, not 1912; and that rather than dying in 2005, he is still alive.)

(Perhaps Cook noticed these things and is too polite to point them out?)

[madcaptenor]

It's hard to be totally sure, but I also don't think that's a picture of Dudley.

[zahlman]

Yeah, I struggled a lot with finding authentic pictures, but from what little I could turn up he looks quite different.