Breaking Benford
Radiolab13 Nov 2020

Breaking Benford

In the days after the US Presidential election was called for Joe Biden, many supporters of Donald Trump are crying foul. Voter fraud. And a key piece of evidence? A century-old quirk of math called Benford’s Law. We at Radiolab know Benford’s Law well, and have covered it before. In this political dispatch, Latif and Soren Sherlock their way through the precinct numbers to see if these claims hold up. Spoiler: they don’t. But the reason why is more interesting than you’d expect.

This episode was reported by Latif Nasser.

Support Radiolab by becoming a member today at Radiolab.org/donate.

Links:

Walter Mebane, “Inappropriate Applications of Benford’s Law Regularities to Some Data from the 2020 Presidential Election in the United States”


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(652)

Fetal Consequences

Fetal Consequences

Mother's day is nigh. Sort of. Anyway, without knowing it, you might have already given your mom a pretty lasting gift. But whether it helps or hurts her, or both, is still an open question. In this R...

1 Mai 201218min

Crossroads

Crossroads

In this short, we go looking for the devil, and find ourselves tangled in a web of details surrounding one of the most haunting figures in music--a legendary guitarist whose shadowy life spawned a leg...

16 Apr 201229min

Guts

Guts

This hour, we dive into the messy mystery in the middle of us. What's going on down there? And what can the rumblings deep in our bellies tell us about ourselves? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz comp...

2 Apr 201255min

The Turing Problem

The Turing Problem

100 years ago this year, the man who first conceived of the computer age was born. His name was Alan Turing. He was also a math genius, a hero of World War II and he is widely considered to be the fat...

19 Mar 201223min

A War We Need

A War We Need

Every day, every moment, an epic battle is raging across the globe. It's happening in the ocean. And the evidence is both highly visible and totally hidden, depending on your perspective. In this shor...

6 Mar 201210min

Escape!

Escape!

The walls are closing in, you've got no way out... and then, suddenly, you escape! This hour, stories about traps, getaways, perpetual cycles, and staggering breakthroughs. Hosted by Simplecast, an Ad...

20 Feb 20121h 5min

Killer Empathy

Killer Empathy

Sometimes being a good scientist requires putting aside your emotions. But what happens when objectivity isn't enough to make sense of a seemingly senseless act of violence? In this short, Jad and Rob...

7 Feb 201218min

Wake Up and Dream

Wake Up and Dream

In today's short, a man confronts a bully, and frees himself from a recurring nightmare that's terrorized him for more than 20 years. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for ...

24 Jan 201216min

Populært innen Vitenskap

fastlegen
tingenes-tilstand
rss-nysgjerrige-norge
sinnsyn
rekommandert
forskningno
villmarksliv
liberal-halvtime
rss-paradigmepodden
rss-zahid-ali-hjelper-deg
jss
tomprat-med-gunnar-tjomlid
kvinnehelsepodden
nordnorsk-historie
fjellsportpodden
rss-inn-til-kjernen-med-sunniva-rose
rss-rekommandert
tidlose-historier
rss-overskuddsliv
rss-bondevennen