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arXiv:physics/0601192physics.soc-ph

Re-inventing Willis

M. V. Simkin, V. P. Roychowdhury

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Abstract

Scientists often re-invent things that were long known. Here we review these activities as related to the mechanism of producing power law distributions, originally proposed in 1922 by Yule to explain experimental data on the sizes of biological genera, collected by Willis. We also review the history of re-invention of closely related branching processes, random graphs and coagulation models.

arXiv comments
Physics Reports (2011)
Journal reference
Physics Reports 502 (2011) 1-35
DOI
doi:10.1016/j.physrep.2010.12.004
Subjects
physics.soc-phPhysics and Society cond-mat.stat-mechStatistical Mechanics math.STStatistics Theory

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  1. Why isn't everything normally distributed? 1 comment

    • As others have pointed out, power laws are more "normal" than the normal distribution. The reason for this is that if you have the sum independent identically distributed (I.I.D.) random variables (R.V.s), if they converge to a distribution, that distribution is Levy Stable [1]…

      abetuskView on HNParent context

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