The peculiar patterns of first digits

Despite seeing numbers all the time only occasionally would one say that a list of numbers seems odd. For this to occur, the numbers are typically highly rounded or implausible (too much of a coincidence). However digit pattern analysis, using a computer, can produce valuable findings not revealed at a mere glance. The most widely cited paper on digit frequencies was published by Frank Benford in 1938. With powerful, low-cost personal computers, Benford's law can help us to efficiently test the integrity of data. The first step is to assess whether Benford's law should apply to the data. If the data is expected to conform, then Benford's law becomes the expected distribution. Conformity means that the actual distribution closely approximates the expected distribution.