fairness · counting · statistics
Benford's law
In real lists, 1 is a first digit more often than 9.
Look at the first digits. Which digit shows up most?
The coral figure is the first digit. A list that spreads across many sizes is not the same as counting 1, 2, 3.
Lock a share, then read the list.
—1s on this sheet
—1s in the long list
—Long-run share of 1s
The first digit is the leftmost figure. 148 and 19 both start with 1.
Numbers that spread across many sizes put 1 first more often than 9. A plain count does not.
In the growing list, 1 leads about 30% of the time and 9 leads about 5%. Counting in order, each digit from 1 to 9 leads about 11% of the time.