Benford Law ? What does it mean?

Science and Technology
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I couldn’t handle that title anymore, nothing cosmic about - Well that not true either, its fundamental to our cosmos. :wink:

The Law Of First Digits
Recently I had my first introduction to the Benford Law.
For you more mathematically inclined it’s probably old news.
For a virgin like me, it was an amazing head trip.
Meditating on it, once the shear bewilderment at the concept wears off,
it does feel like sort of connection between the number thing and nature itself makes sense,
but it’s weird just the same. I don’t have the tools to play with this the way a mathematicians can,
hell just trying to grasp the reality of the concept, still I can feel the fun in it.
I bet it ties in with fractals, be fun to see that formula :lol:

http://www.rexswain.com/benford.html (From "The First-Digit Phenomenon" by T. P. Hill, American Scientist, July-August 1998) Benford's law predicts a decreasing frequency of first digits, from 1 through 9. Every entry in data sets developed by Benford for numbers appearing on the front pages of newspapers, by Mark Nigrini of 3,141 county populations in the 1990 U.S. Census and by Eduardo Ley of the Dow Jones Industrial Average from 1990-93 follows Benford's law within 2 percent.
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Where it get’s really interesting is that Benford Law has become a prime weapon in fraud detection.
Astounding stuff,

Using Spreadsheets and Benford’s Law to Test Accounting Data Mark G. Simkin, Ph.D. https://www.isaca.org/Journal/archives/2010/Volume-1/Pages/Using-Spreadsheets-and-Benford-s-Law-to-Test-Accounting-Data1.aspx Accounting systems are popular targets of financial frauds because, in the words of bank-robber Willie Sutton, “that’s where the money is." One common method thieves use to commit such fraud is to create fictitious accounting entities, e.g., bogus employee records or vendor payments, and then manipulate the fictitious records to their advantage. The success or failure of such scams rests in the ability to blend the bogus entries with legitimate data and, therefore, escape the notice of supervisors and auditors. ...
Using Excel and Benford’s Law to detect fraud Learn the formulas, functions, and techniques that enable efficient Benford analysis of data sets. By J. Carlton Collins, CPA - April 1, 2017 http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/2017/apr/excel-and-benfords-law-to-detect-fraud.html
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Oh, yeah. Benford’s Law is pretty cool stuff.
I’m pretty sure it has very little to do with fractal math, though. It’s more related to Number Theory, the study of numbers and what kinds of properties people find just by counting stuff. Prime numbers are huge in number theory, but Benford’s Law is a notable non-prime-studies branch of it, at least from what I understand.
If you really want to see some mind-blowing stuff, check out Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem.

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Oh, yeah. Benford's Law is pretty cool stuff. I'm pretty sure it has very little to do with fractal math, though. It's more related to Number Theory, the study of numbers and what kinds of properties people find just by counting stuff. Prime numbers are huge in number theory, but Benford's Law is a notable non-prime-studies branch of it, at least from what I understand. If you really want to see some mind-blowing stuff, check out Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem.
Oh jeez you're right. Haven't read any books on it ;-P but I have looked up a few YouTube videos purporting to explain it - seems a very popular item. I haven't been able to make it work, walk away for days, give another video or two a try - it never get's past the arbitrary for me, there's no string of logic for me to follow, feels to me to rest of who's opinion is strongest. Yeah, I'm sure there's more to it, but I'm a simple kinda guy. Multi-universes don't make the slightest sense to me either :cheese: Still, thanks for the introduction to this bizarre item.
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Here, try this explanation:

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Here, try this explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4ndIDcDSGc&t=4s
okay I'll cue it up. Yesterday I looked at something about the Fibonacci Sequence - be interesting to know how that sequence jives with Bedford's Law. I feel silly bringing the fractals into this, guess it's cause I see them in everything.
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Here, try this explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4ndIDcDSGc&t=4s
okay I'll cue it up. Yesterday I looked at something about the Fibonacci Sequence - be interesting to know how that sequence jives with Bedford's Law. I feel silly bringing the fractals into this, guess it's cause I see them in everything. Andrew, been meaning to respond to this for a long time. After a few days I felt a little sheepish about my Bedford's Law, it's thinking about the angle of repose that did it. Like how else could large sums of many smaller random sums, not follow some sort of sequence. All of sudden it's power to amaze vanished. But, you gotta come along with https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4ndIDcDSGc&t=4s. :ahhh: I could see the professor: So Herrn Student, you think that's a pretty fancy trick, ey. Okay now take this, and run along. Holy shit talk about getting knocked out of the ball park. At least Bedford's law is within three dimensions. I ran from that video pulling my hair out. Well okay not really, but talk about brain twister, it's definitely beyond me. It comes to mind because I'm watching a pretty good little documentary and he's one of the stars, so now I got my mind spanked again. Though they keep it lite. ;-) BBC.Dangerous.Knowledge https://vimeo.com/173185552 __________________________________________ Thanks for the fun ride. :-)