Several common probability distributions obey Benford's law

摘要

Benford's law states that the frequency of lower first significant digits(FSD) is higher than that of upper FSD in many naturally produced numbers. The law can be applied to many various fields, so it is important to know which common probability distributions obey Benford's law. We revisit whether the Log-normal probability distribution obeys the law by using the method of Fourier analysis and numerical simulation. Moreover, we use simulation method to judge whether the Weibull distribution and the Inverse Gamma distribution are close to Benford's law under some conditions. Our work give some reasons to support why Benford's law is universal in real world. (C) 2019 Published by Elsevier B.V.