Benford’s Law.
A Netflix series called “Connected” has a lot of very interesting information but one episode on Benford’s Law was absolutely mind blowing. Basically there is a mathematical fact that runs all of the universe including you and me. One can use this law to discover when things have been tampered with (like the 2016 election which is shown by comparing certain numbers that it was bent to help one candidate (duh). This is really hard to understand and grasp the significance of it but mathematicians who understand it all agree it is a factual occurrence. [isaca.org]
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.I can't see why anyone finds this surprising.
Coffeo
Level 8
Aug 25, 2020
0
It is something no one knows or even understands. There is a lot of high level math in explaining the phenomena.
@JackPedigo What would be hard to explain would be if 1s and 9s were equally likely.
@Coffeo Coming up with a proper listing showing the prevalence of numbers. This field is full of high level mathematicians who come up with complex formulas to explain why the law works and how to get the pure, unadulterated numbers.
I daresay actually proving Benford's Law does indeed require a sound basis in mathematics, but intuitively it's exactly what you would expect.
I would not quite say that Benfords Law runs all the universe, it is a law supported by several different sub-laws and observations about how the digits are distributed in random numbers. One of the main uses of it is by the revenue authorities of the world, to help them spot when people are cheating on their tax returns.
Fernapple
Level 9
Aug 24, 2020
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