Solved cryptogram
In many real collections of numbers, a leading one turns up about six times as often as a nine.
Mathematics Facts, sourced to Wolfram MathWorld.
Solve it yourself
This fact is a cryptogram here: 75 letters over 19 different ones, graded medium.
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What it means
Benford's law says the chance of a leading digit d is the logarithm of one plus one over d. That makes a leading one appear about thirty percent of the time and a leading nine under five. It holds for river lengths, street addresses, populations and stock prices, because those quantities span several orders of magnitude. Tax authorities and auditors use it: invented figures tend to have digits spread evenly, and real ones do not.
The claim comes from Wolfram MathWorld.
- SourceWolfram MathWorld
- CollectionMathematics Facts
- Difficultymedium
- Length75 letters, 19 of them different
Nearby in the collection
The facts either side of this one.
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