Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Best "power law" EVER!

If you ever want an example of the misuse and abuse of "power laws," then look no further.

For a good laugh, check out the beauty on the bottom of page 10 of this document, which was produced by a consulting group that I'm never going to hire.

There are 5 data points (count 'em), and they "fit" (though I hesitate to use the word for 5 data points) a sinusoid (in log-log coordinates) much better than a line segment.

If you ever find a better example of what not to do, let me know...

Garbage like this is what causes me to rant about power laws so often, even though they can be useful on occasion.

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