Comments on: Ode to Power Laws

By: La constance des changements d’état (3) | Le Webinet des Curiosités

La constance des changements d’état (3) | Le Webinet des Curiosités — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 22:07:55 +0000

[…] La constance des changements d’état (3) 09/02/2013By XochipilliPart 3: Doit-on servir la SOC à toutes les sauces? Les lois de puissance vont-elles sauver le monde? Illustration inspirée de ce billet […]

By: Sharad Goel

Sharad Goel — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 13:40:35 +0000

Dave, you caught us! We were forced to post in march to maintain our one-post-per-month minimum. I guess that’s the downside of commitment devices; the upside is that we actually write a post once in a while.

By: David Pennock

David Pennock — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 14:44:54 +0000

Since this posted on March 31 I have no choice but to take everything here at face value

By: Sharad Goel

Sharad Goel — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 21:21:45 +0000

Duncan Watts asked, "Isn't there some way to combine power laws and puppies? That would be even awesomer." Well, I couldn't agree more! So here's some puppy power law data porn. And, yes, those registration statistics are real---puppy registrations do indeed follow a power law!

By: Sharad Goel

Sharad Goel — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 21:12:23 +0000

Lev, very nice!

By: Lev Reyzin

Lev Reyzin — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 14:42:20 +0000

Sharad has informed me my self-imposed blackout period can end, so I’ll post my solution to the puzzle:

Take any 10 dice and say they sum to n. Flip them; now they sum to 70 – n (b/c sum of opposite sides is 7 and there are 10 dice). These make the first pile. The remaining 20 dice make the second pile, which also sums to 70-n (b/c the total was originally 70).

By: Sharad Goel

Sharad Goel — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 13:25:58 +0000

Aaron, I love how you have power law poetry ready to go on a moment’s notice!

By: Aaron

Aaron — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 02:42:47 +0000

I once also tried to make power-law poetry. The result was gruel, but here it is:

Three Power Laws for the Physicists, mathematics in thrall,
Four for the biologists, species and all,
Eighteen behavioral, our will carved in stone,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne.

In the Land of Science where Power Laws lie,
One Paper to rule them all, One Paper to find them,
One Paper to bring them all and in their moments bind them,
In the Land of Science, where Power Laws lie.

Something about my paper having the current most mentions of “power law” in it, of all the power-law articles on the arxiv, fills me with satisfaction.

By: mohammad

mohammad — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 22:32:13 +0000

:))

By: Mathew Woodyard

Mathew Woodyard — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 04:28:28 +0000

This post is full of win. You had me at the haiku. <3 power laws.