There is a great podcast (mp3 can be found on this page) from Radiolab that has a four part series on Numbers. The two parts that I enjoyed were on Benford’s Law (which I had not heard of before) and on the mathematician Paul Erdős.
Benford’s law basically states that the leading digit in real-life datasets is not uniformly distributed. Basically, the first digit of real-life datasets, the “1″ is more common than “2″ which is more common than “3″ etc. They give some background on how the law was found and interview someone using it in forensics.
Paul Erdős was a Hungarian born mathematician who is considered one of the brightest and most prolific mathematicians that has ever lived. The podcast gives some background to his life and the interactions he has with other mathematicians.
Very good podcast and well worth the listen…
That podcast was a pretty neat – thanks for sharing.
Benford’s Law makes me feel uneasy. It is one of those things that the more I think about, the more my tummy hurts.
I wonder what my Erdős number is?
RadioLab is a great podcast and that one on numbers was particularly good.
I believe my Erdős number is 4. I published with a guy in Vancouver, who published with his supervisor, his supervisor published with someone else who had published with Erdős. Pretty cool.
And I published with a few people who have published with you, making my Erdős number 6 !