Benford's Very Strange Law - Professor John D. Barrow

The first digits of randomly chosen numbers arising naturally or in human affairs display surprising statistical regularities. We will see why this distribution of digits, first found by Simon Newcomb and Frank Benford, is so ubiquitous and how it has been used to check for fraudulent accountancy and for suspicious vote counts in some national elections.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/benford%E2%80%99s-very-strange-law

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website.
http://www.gresham.ac.uk

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Random Sequence
• Frank Benford
• Simon Newcomb
• Mathematics
• Maths
• Math
• John D. Barrow
• John Barrow
• Cambridge Professor
• Millennium Mathematics Project
• Applied Mathematics
• Gresham College
• Gresham
• Gresham Professor of Geometry
• Gresham Professor
• Professor of Geometry
• Talk
• Lecture
• Free Education

[LeavingCertMaths]

xp’(kx) = -p(x)/k^2 is the correct differential equation in the slide at 20:00. This is given in the transcript.