Take a set of numbers collected from “the wild”. You might take company profits, city population statistics, street numbers or odometer readings. How many of the numbers in your set start with “1″? how many with “2″? with “3″?, “4″? …
Amazing as it sounds, these leading digits are NOT evenly distributed but follow a pattern (30% “1″s, down to less than 5% “9″s). This pattern is so reliable, it’s been used in fraud detection, to trap companies cooking their books: the invented numbers did not follow Benford’s Law.
Follow the link for a fascinating explanation of why this is so.
The Empire State Building brings to mind that iconic image of King Kong atop the skyscraper, swatting away biplanes as he clutches Fay Wray in his massive hand. But how massive? How big would the 1933 movie version of Kong have been, and how much would he have weighed … ?
http://www.andrewcaelliott.com/explorations/2016/10/27/how-much-did-king-kong-weigh
If you’re looking for numbers on Covid-19, a very good choice is to head over to OurWorldInData.com. Good numbers, good analysis, good visualisations and good interactive tools for exploring the numbers.
Oh, and they cover MUCH more than just Covid-19. Highly recommended.
