Probably likely

摘要

As a scientist and engineer, I was amazed to find that the patterns described in Rachel Courtland's article on Benford's law came as such a surprise (16 October, p 10). It is only natural that numbers that are randomly distributed on a logarithmic scale translate into this observed pattern. Compare the spacing between 1 and 2 on a logarithmic scale to that between 8 and 9. Between 1 and 2 covers a factor 2 increase but between 8 and 9 there is an increase of less than 13 per cent.