Benford's Law - anyone have their own examples?

[6.28318531]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benford's_law

Anyone here have their own examples? I found it applies to the tonnage of steel beam produced where I am working.30% of the time the weight started with a one.

[jsgruszynski]

It's important to understand why Benford's works (because there are many causes where false positives and false negatives can occur). Basically you have to have a random process generating the numbers.

A simply accounting example that doesn't pass Benford yet is perfectly legitimate is an ensemble of cash flows resulting from a fixed contractual amount. It's also quite easy to fake a Benford distribution.