tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5264937.post8898876873866332308..comments2024-03-26T12:23:29.784-04:00Comments on Philosoraptor: Benford's LawWinston Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08780746334199630779noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5264937.post-19641220415723518922013-08-27T08:00:27.307-04:002013-08-27T08:00:27.307-04:00If I understood what you're saying, it's b...If I understood what you're saying, it's basically the explanation I was grasping for, but, despite it's simplicity, for some reason couldn't quite articulate. <br /><br />Is the explanation:<br /><br />You'd expect a big chunk of the magnitudes we encounter to be in the 1-2 range, another chunk to be in the 1-3 range, another to be in the 1-4 range, etc... So, basically, we Winston Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08780746334199630779noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5264937.post-22568904035619467362013-08-26T16:41:50.688-04:002013-08-26T16:41:50.688-04:00This isn't a "law." It's just ba...This isn't a "law." It's just basic mathematics. If you say "pick a number between 1 and 9, then there will be a uniform distribution across the entire decade: 1/9 for all possible leading digits. But if you pick a number between (say) 1 and 3, then the decadal distribution is:<br />1/3,1/3,1/3,0,0,0,0,0,0.<br />Similarly, if you pick a number between 1 and 20, the first pmmhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07321359255930976499noreply@blogger.com