DIAMOND Mark R wrote:
> Background: Theodore Hill showed, in a paper published in Statistical
> Science 1995, that if sequences of random variables $\{X\sb n\}$ are
> selected at random in a scale (base) unbiased way, then the mantissa
> distributions of the combined sample will converge to Benford's law---a
> random probability measure being said to be scale (base) unbiased if its
> expected distribution is scale (base) invariant.
>
> IsI wondered if anyone knows of a sensible way of producing such sequences,
> assuming that one has available a "good" source of uniform deviates?
AFAIK the main application of Benford's law is in the detection of
accountancy
fraud, which makes me reluctant to respond.
Could you give a few more details of your intended application. Not least
because there are edge-effect issues that might be easier to address in
your particular problem domain.
Peter
===========================================================================
This list is open to everyone. Occasionally, less thoughtful
people send inappropriate messages. Please DO NOT COMPLAIN TO
THE POSTMASTER about these messages because the postmaster has no
way of controlling them, and excessive complaints will result in
termination of the list.
For information about this list, including information about the
problem of inappropriate messages and information about how to
unsubscribe, please see the web page at
http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/
===========================================================================