Benford’s Law

Benford’s Law

Benford’s Law isn’t actually a statistical principle, but it has significant statistical components, implications, and rationale. Conduct some basic research into this law and consider some situations in which engineering might deal with naturally occurring datasets that could be evaluated or described using it. Think about what you’ve learned about probability and how it can help explain why data behaves as described by Benford.

Write and submit an essay that uses the principles of probability covered in this class to explain the basic observations enabled by Benford’s Law. Offer some suggestions for how Benford’s Law might be useful in one or more engineering situations, and why you think so. (Hint: Think in terms of an engineering application where you might want to validate that arriving data is real.)

To earn credit with this assignment, the submitted essay must be well-written, original, cleanly presented, and offer a complete discussion of the topic. It should be engagingly written at a serious junior undergraduate academic level. Every year I reject one or two.