What is Benford's Law?

Have you ever thought about which number is the most common in the whole wide world? You might think numbers are totally fair and show up equally, like rolling a giant dice. But guess what? The universe has a secret favorite number! Join Mira and Finn on Maths is Not Boring as they uncover the amazing mystery of Benford's Law! Our story starts all the way back in 1881, when an astronomer named Simon Newcomb noticed something super weird at the library. A heavy book of numbers was completely worn out and grubby on the pages starting with the number 1, but totally pristine on the pages starting with 9! Decades later, a physicist named Frank Benford tested 20,000 real-world numbers, from the lengths of rushing rivers to the populations of huge cities. He discovered that the number 1 shows up as the first digit a whopping 30 percent of the time! Discover how this magical math rule actually works, why growing towns get "stuck" on the number 1, and how real-life scientists use this invisible pattern as a secret lie detector to spot made-up numbers!