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Related papers: Equipartitions and a Distribution for Numbers: A S…

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Iafrate, Miller, and Strauch [Equipartition and a Distribution for Numbers: A Statistical Model for Benford's Law," arXiv:1503.08259] construct and test a statistical model for partitioning a conserved quantity. One consequence of their…

Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability · Physics 2016-04-20 Don S. Lemons

We develop two complementary generative mechanisms that explain when and why Benford's first-digit law arises. First, a probabilistic Turing machine (PTM) ensemble induces a geometric law for codelength. Maximizing its entropy under a…

Information Theory · Computer Science 2025-11-25 Alexander Kolpakov , Aidan Rocke

Benford's Law predicts that the first significant digit on the leftmost side of numbers in real-life data is proportioned between all possible 1 to 9 digits approximately as in LOG(1 + 1/digit), so that low digits occur much more frequently…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2019-01-04 Alex Ely Kossovsky

Many systems exhibit a digit bias. For example, the first digit base 10 of the Fibonacci numbers, or of $2^n$, equals 1 not 10% or 11% of the time, as one would expect if all digits were equally likely, but about 30% of the time. This…

The uneven distribution of digits in numerical data, known as Benford's law, was discovered in 1881. Since then, this law has been shown to be correct in copious numerical data relating to economics, physics and even prime numbers. Although…

Discrete Mathematics · Computer Science 2009-07-28 Oded Kafri

Benford's Law predicts that the first significant digit on the leftmost side of numbers in real-life data is proportioned between all possible 1 to 9 digits approximately as in LOG(1 + 1/digit), so that low digits occur much more frequently…

Physics and Society · Physics 2020-01-22 Alex Ely Kossovsky

Nature and our world have a bias! Roughly $30\%$ of the time the number $1$ occurs as the leading digit in many datasets base $10$. This phenomenon is known as Benford's law and it arrises in diverse fields such as the stock market,…

Probability · Mathematics 2023-08-16 Irfan Durmić , Steven J. Miller

Many mathematical, man-made and natural systems exhibit a leading-digit bias, where a first digit (base 10) of 1 occurs not 11\% of the time, as one would expect if all digits were equally likely, but rather 30\%. This phenomenon is known…

Benford's law is the statement that in many real-world data sets, the probability of having digit \(d\) in base \(B\), where \(1 \leq d \leq B\), as the first digit is \(\log_{B}\left(\tfrac{d+1}{d}\right)\). We sometimes refer to this as…

Probability · Mathematics 2025-08-26 Bruce Fang , Ava Irons , Ella Lippelman , Steven J. Miller

We study fragmentation numerically using a simple model in which an object is taken to be a set of particles that interact pairwisely via a Lennard-Jones potential while the effect of the fragmentation-induced forces is represented by some…

Condensed Matter · Physics 2015-06-25 Emily S. C. Ching , Y. Y. Yiu , K. F. Lo

Benford's law is the statement that in many real world data sets, the probability of having digit $d$ in base $B$ as the first digit is \log_{B}\!\left(\frac{d+1}{d}\right) for all $1 \leq d \leq B$. We sometimes refer to this as weak…

Probability · Mathematics 2026-03-06 Bruce Fang , Steven J. Miller

Benford's law is an empirical law predicting the distribution of the first significant digits of numbers obtained from natural phenomena and mathematical tables. It has been found to be applicable for numbers coming from a plethora of…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2014-09-05 Ameya Deepak Rane , Utkarsh Mishra , Anindya Biswas , Aditi Sen De , Ujjwal Sen

We apply the Principle of Maximum Entropy to the study of a general class of deterministic fractal sets. The scaling laws peculiar to these objects are accounted for by means of a constraint concerning the average content of information in…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2015-06-25 R. Pastor-Satorras , J. Wagensberg

A simple fragmentation model is introduced and analysed. We show that, under very general conditions, an effective power law for the mass distribution arises with realistic exponent. This exponent has a universal limit, but in practice the…

Condensed Matter · Physics 2009-10-28 M. Marsili , Y. -C. Zhang

We formulate the statistics of the discrete multicomponent fragmentation event using a methodology borrowed from statistical mechanics. We generate the ensemble of all feasible distributions that can be formed when a single integer…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2020-07-03 Themis Matsoukas

The diverse applications of the Benford law attract investigators working in various fields of physics, biology and sociology. At the same time, the groundings of the Benford law remain obscure. Our paper demonstrates that the Benford law…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2015-11-19 G. Whyman , E. Shulzinger , Ed. Bormashenko

A statistical model of fragmentation of aggregates is proposed, based on the stochastic propagation of cracks through the body. The propagation rules are formulated on a lattice and mimic two important features of the process -- a crack…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2014-10-15 F. Spahn , E. V. Neto , A. H. F. Guimaraes , A. N. Gorban , N. V. Brilliantov

The probability that a number in many naturally occurring tables of numerical data has first significant digit $d$ is predicted by Benford's Law ${\rm Prob} (d) = \log_{10} (1 + {\displaystyle{1\over d}}), d = 1, 2 >..., 9$. Illustrations…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2007-06-13 Zhipeng Li , Lin Cong , Huajia Wang

Benford's law predicts the occurrence of the $n^{\mathrm{th}}$ digit of numbers in datasets originating from various sources of the world, ranging from financial data to atomic spectra. It is intriguing that although many features of…

Popular Physics · Physics 2014-09-11 T. Alexopoulos , S. Leontsinis

A simple method to derive parametric analytical extensions of Benford's law for first digits of numerical data is proposed. Two generalized Benford distributions are considered, namely the two-sided power Benford distribution and the new…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2007-06-13 Werner Hurlimann
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