Ran across a reference to this the other day, and had to look it up. Short version: Benford's Law indicates that in most data sets of real-life data, the first digit is most often a 1, least frequently a 9; similar patterns (with much less variation) can be detected in subsequent digits.
This can be used in turn to test data sets for fraud and inaccuracy, since random or human-made-up numbers don't tend to obey Benford's Law. This has been used in voting fraud cases, scientific experimentation fraud, and other cases.
I leave the rest for +Margie Kleerup, since she's the math wonk in the family. But I thought it was a Cool Thing.
Benford’s law – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Benford’s Law, also called the First-Digit Law, refers to the frequency distribution of digits in many (but not all) real-life sources of data. In this distribution, the number 1 occurs as the leading digit about 30% of the time, while larger numbers occur in that position less frequently: 9 as …
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