Benford’s Law - Using Logarithms to Detect Fraud
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Date
2012
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Publisher
Ohio Council of Teachers of Mathematics
Abstract
In 1881, Simon Newcomb made the simple observation that the beginning pages of books were more worn
than the later pages of those books. From that routine observation, Newcomb and others developed a
mathematical principle involving logarithms that can be observed in a wide variety of data, from birth and
death rates, to lengths of rivers, to financial transactions. In this article, the author provides an example of
how this principle can be used to detect fraud in a company’s accounts payable department. Suggestions for
classroom activities are provided for additional exploration.
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Citation
Ohio Journal of School Mathematics, no. 65 (2012), 52-57.