English
Related papers

Related papers: Benford Behavior of a Higher-Dimensional Fragmenta…

200 papers

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 states that for many random variables X > 0 its leading digit D = D(X) satisfies approximately the equation P(D = d) = log_{10}(1 + 1/d) for d = 1,2,...,9. This phenomenon follows from another, maybe more intuitive fact,…

Probability · Mathematics 2008-06-25 Lutz Duembgen , Christoph Leuenberger

The first digit (FD) phenomenon i.e., the significant digits of numbers in large data are often distributed according to a logarithmically decreasing function was first reported by S. Newcomb and then many decades later independently by F.…

Physics and Society · Physics 2026-02-03 Tariq Ahmad Mir , Marcel Ausloos

According to Benford's law, the most significant digit in many datasets is not uniformly distributed, but obeys a well defined power law distribution with smaller digits appearing more often. Among one of the myriad particle physics…

Physics and Society · Physics 2018-05-18 Aisha Dantuluri , Shantanu Desai

That the logarithmic distribution manifests itself in the random as well as in the deterministic (multiplication processes) has long intrigued researchers in Benford's Law. In this article it is argued that it springs from one common…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2012-11-01 Alex Ely Kossovsky

We determine the leading digit laws for the matrix components of a linear Lie group $G$. These laws generalize the observations that the normalized Haar measure of the Lie group $\mathbb{R}^+$ is $dx/x$ and that the scale invariance of…

Number Theory · Mathematics 2015-07-08 Corey Manack , Steven J. Miller

Benford's law describes the distribution of the first digit of numbers appearing in a wide variety of numerical data, including tax records, and election outcomes, and has been used to raise "red flags" about potential anomalies in the data…

Social and Information Networks · Computer Science 2022-05-27 Tianyi Chen , Charalampos E. Tsourakakis

The renowned proverb, Numbers do not lie, underscores the reliability and insight that lie beneath numbers, a concept of undisputed importance, especially in economics and finance etc. Despite the prosperity of Benford's Law in the first…

Computation and Language · Computer Science 2023-09-12 Fuqian Zhang , Zhenhua Wang

Inspired by the basic stick fragmentation model proposed by Becker et al. in arXiv:1309.5603v4, we consider three new versions of such fragmentation models, namely, continuous with random number of parts, continuous with probabilistic…

Probability · Mathematics 2023-09-06 Xinyu Fang , Steven J. Miller , Maxwell Sun , Amanda Verga

In many real life situations, it is observed that the first digits (i.e., $1,2,\ldots,9$) of a numerical data-set, which is expressed using decimal system, do not follow a random distribution. Instead, smaller numbers are favoured by nature…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2022-06-10 Abhishek Shukla , Ankit Kumar Pandey , Anirban Pathak

In the literature, Benford's Law is considered for base-b expansions where b>1 is an integer. In this paper, we investigate the distribution of leading "digits" of a sequence of positive integers under other expansions such as Zeckendorf…

Number Theory · Mathematics 2023-09-04 Sungkon Chang , Steven J. Miller

Infrared spectra of various polymers were treated statistically. It was established that for the absorbance spectra the Benford distribution of leading digits takes place, whereas the distribution of leading digits for transmittance spectra…

General Physics · Physics 2015-06-10 Ed. Bormashenko , E. Shulzinger , G. Whyman , Ye. Bormashenko

Kossovsky recently conjectured that the distribution of leading digits of a chain of probability distributions converges to Benford's law as the length of the chain grows. We prove his conjecture in many cases, and provide an interpretation…

Probability · Mathematics 2010-09-15 Dennis Jang , Jung Uk Kang , Alex Kruckman , Jun Kudo , Steven J. Miller

A random variable (r.v.) X is said to follow Benford's law if log(X) is uniform mod 1. Many experimental data sets prove to follow an approximate version of it, and so do many mathematical series and continuous random variables. This…

Probability · Mathematics 2009-10-09 Nicolas Gauvrit , Jean-Paul Delahaye

Nonextensive statistics, characterized by a nonextensive parameter $q$, is a promising and practically useful generalization of the Boltzmann statistics to describe power-law behaviors from physical and social observations. We here explore…

Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability · Physics 2011-03-07 Lijing Shao , Bo-Qiang Ma

The occurrence of digits one through nine as the leftmost nonzero digit of numbers from real world sources is often not uniformly distributed, but instead, is distributed according to a logarithmic law, known as Benford's law. Here, we…

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics · Physics 2010-05-14 Lijing Shao , Bo-Qiang Ma

The goal of this note is to show that a widespread claim about Benford's Law, namely, that the range of every Benford distribution spans at least several orders of magnitude, is false. The proof is constructive and concrete examples are…

Probability · Mathematics 2020-11-30 Theodore P. Hill

There are now many theoretical explanations for why Benford's law of digit bias surfaces in so many diverse fields and data sets. After briefly reviewing some of these, we discuss in depth recurrence relations. As these are discrete…

Probability · Mathematics 2019-11-22 Madeleine Farris , Noah Luntzlara , Steven J. Miller , Lily Shao , Mengxi Wang

The following work is written in easy language for college level students. It shows how the first digit probabilities of a group of continuous real-valued functions can be calculated. Thus, examples explaining how the probabilities are…

History and Overview · Mathematics 2021-03-15 Irina Pashchenko

It has long been known that sequences such as the powers of $2$ and the factorials satisfy Benford's Law; that is, leading digits in these sequences occur with frequencies given by $P(d)=\log_{10}(1+1/d)$, $d=1,2,\dots,9$. In this paper, we…

Number Theory · Mathematics 2018-10-30 Zhaodong Cai , Matthew Faust , A. J. Hildebrand , Junxian Li , Yuan Zhang