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Breaking the Law

CSEF · 2008 Mathematics & Software

Travis McHugh · Woodside Elementary School, Woodside, San Mateo County

Overview

Objectives/Goals To prove if Benford's Law applies to randomly generated numbers, and not just numbers occuring from natural data sets. Methods/Materials Materials: Microsoft Excel Random Number Generator Calculator Reliable Helper Methods: Generate a certain amount of data sets, with a specific amount of numbers per set Calculate the occurance of each number 1 through 9 as the first digit of a number within the data set Compare the tested results to Benford's Law Results Benford's Law does not hold valid for all types of numerical data sets; Benford's Law does not apply to randomly generated numbers Conclusions/Discussion The law does not occur to randomly generated numbers because the percentage for each number to occur as the first digit of a number is the same.

Summary statement

I tested the validity of Benford's Law when applied to randomly generated numbers

Help received

mom assembled board, dad was "reliable helper"

Competition history

  • CSEF 2008 Mathematics & Software · Entry J1313

Resources

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Source: California Science & Engineering Fair public projects

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