click here for the plus home page
© 1997-2009, Millennium Mathematics Project, University of Cambridge.
Permission is granted to print and copy this page on paper for non-commercial use. For other uses, including electronic redistribution, please contact us.
Seven things everyone wants to know about the universe
icon

What would you like to know about your universe?

Careers with maths
icon

Andy Green is gearing up to break the land speed record in his rocket powered car Bloodhound SSC

A favourite from the archive...
Subscribe to our RSS feed:
AddThis Feed Button subscribe to our RSS feed
 
September 2009
Tags

fraud detection

Feature icon

You might think that if you collected together a list of naturally-occurring numbers, then as many of them would start with a 1 as with any other digit, but you'd be quite wrong. Jon Walthoe explains why Benford's Law says otherwise, and why tax inspectors are taking an interest.

Tags: statistics : logarithm : randomness : Benford's Law : distribution of digits : fraud detection : scale invariance : uniform distribution