Good, Clean Fun with Numbers: Benford’s Law
July 22, 2014
One cannot have too many numbers, really. Imagine you have a data set that includes many numbers, like U.S. city populations, or the odometer readings for all the cars in an area. Look at only the first digit of each number in your set of populations or mileage, and count each time 1 through 9 occurred. Each number should occur about the same number of times. You would have about the same number of 1’s as you would of 2’s or 3’s, right? The correct answer is somewhat more fun.
