Benford＇s Law and Invariances

Benford＇s law is logarithmic law for distribution of leading digits formulated by P[D=d]= log（1＋1/d） where d is leading digit or group of digits. It＇s named by Frank Albert Benford （1938） who formulated mathematical model of this probability. Befbre him, the same observation was made by Simon Newcomb. This law has changed usual preasumption of equal probability of each digit on each position in number.The main characteristic properties of this law are base, scale, sum, inverse and product invariance. Base invariance means that logarithmic law is valid for any base. Inverse invariance means that logarithmic law for leading digits holds for inverse values in sample. Multiplication invariance means that if random variable X follows Benford＇s law and Y is arbitrary random variable with continuous density then XY follows Benford＇s law too. Sum invariance means that sums of significand are the same for any leading digit or group of digits. In this text method of testing sum invariance property is proposed.

Benford's Law and β-Decay Half-Lives

The experimental values of 2059 β-decay half-lives are systematically analyzed and investigated. We have found that they are in satisfactory agreement with Benford＇s law, which states that the frequency of occurrence of each figure, 1-9, as the first significant digit in a surprisingly large number of different data sets follows a logarithmic distribution favoring the smaller ones. Benford＇s logarithmic distribution of β-deeay half-lives can be explained in terms of Neweomb＇s justification of Benford＇s law and empirical exponential law of β-decay half-lives. Moreover, we test the calculated values of 6721 β-decay half-lives with the aid of Benford＇s law. This indicates that Benford＇s law is useful for theoretical physicists to test their methods for calculating β-decay half-lives.