Path: csiph.com!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!mx02.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: jimp@specsol.spam.sux.com Newsgroups: sci.physics Subject: Re: Review | Zipf's law Date: Sat, 28 Nov 2015 23:11:03 -0000 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 20 Sender: Jim Pennino Message-ID: <7topic-5al.ln1@mail.specsol.com> References: Injection-Info: mx02.eternal-september.org; posting-host="db4120ef82bbc153014637d4cd15a795"; logging-data="10154"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX19LH5sZgPTa6da7Bwp2EI6r" User-Agent: tin/2.2.1-20140504 ("Tober an Righ") (UNIX) (SunOS/5.10 (i86pc)) Cancel-Lock: sha1:cEGm6jgns6bjrcpI69CH/fc4wFo= Xref: csiph.com sci.physics:536200 Sam Wormley wrote: > Zipf's law >> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zipf%27s_law > >> Zipf's law, an empirical law formulated using mathematical >> statistics, refers to the fact that many types of data studied in the >> physical and social sciences can be approximated with a Zipfian >> distribution, one of a family of related discrete power law >> probability distributions. The law is named after the American >> linguist George Kingsley Zipf (1902?1950), who popularized it and >> sought to explain it (Zipf 1935, 1949), though he did not claim to >> have originated it.[1] The French stenographer Jean-Baptiste Estoup >> (1868?1950) appears to have noticed the regularity before Zipf.[2] It >> was also noted in 1913 by German physicist Felix Auerbach[3] >> (1856?1933). Yawn. -- Jim Pennino