Can I do this as my IA?

[julialala]

Hey, so for my IA I was planning on doing something called Benford's law- so I would take a newspaper and write down all of the numbers which occur (which is to do with the law).

But can I do it? My teacher was very excited about it, but here Iv'e read that you have to have two variables and look if there's correlation?

[sirenita30]

hiiii I think this is a super great idea! you're going to do it super great! have fun doing it

[maroctam]

Hey, so for my IA I was planning on doing something called Benford's law- so I would take a newspaper and write down all of the numbers which occur (which is to do with the law).

But can I do it? My teacher was very excited about it, but here Iv'e read that you have to have two variables and look if there's correlation?

Hmm. I think the topic might work, but really depends on how you approach it. By simply counting all the numbers and finding the percentage of numbers that begin with 1 as opposed any of the other (single digit) numbers, you will not score very well. Unless the syllabus changed recently, I am pretty sure Studies need to have 2 or more statistical tests in their IAs; which is why a research question and seeing if there is a correlation is advisable, since you will automatically have to do 1 statistical test (r correlation or something?) without much thought. So yeah, what exactly do you plan on doing with Benford's law?

[julialala]

Hey, so for my IA I was planning on doing something called Benford's law- so I would take a newspaper and write down all of the numbers which occur (which is to do with the law).

But can I do it? My teacher was very excited about it, but here Iv'e read that you have to have two variables and look if there's correlation?

Hmm. I think the topic might work, but really depends on how you approach it. By simply counting all the numbers and finding the percentage of numbers that begin with 1 as opposed any of the other (single digit) numbers, you will not score very well. Unless the syllabus changed recently, I am pretty sure Studies need to have 2 or more statistical tests in their IAs; which is why a research question and seeing if there is a correlation is advisable, since you will automatically have to do 1 statistical test (r correlation or something?) without much thought. So yeah, what exactly do you plan on doing with Benford's law?

So it wouldn't be enough to prove if the law is accurate or not?I was thinking of looking at stocks, or something similar, and gathering up the data from there, and then just checking if the law can be supported or not. I don't really know what another variable could be which might correlate with the law..

[maroctam]

Hey, so for my IA I was planning on doing something called Benford's law- so I would take a newspaper and write down all of the numbers which occur (which is to do with the law).

But can I do it? My teacher was very excited about it, but here Iv'e read that you have to have two variables and look if there's correlation?

Hmm. I think the topic might work, but really depends on how you approach it. By simply counting all the numbers and finding the percentage of numbers that begin with 1 as opposed any of the other (single digit) numbers, you will not score very well. Unless the syllabus changed recently, I am pretty sure Studies need to have 2 or more statistical tests in their IAs; which is why a research question and seeing if there is a correlation is advisable, since you will automatically have to do 1 statistical test (r correlation or something?) without much thought. So yeah, what exactly do you plan on doing with Benford's law?

So it wouldn't be enough to prove if the law is accurate or not?I was thinking of looking at stocks, or something similar, and gathering up the data from there, and then just checking if the law can be supported or not. I don't really know what another variable could be which might correlate with the law..

No it wouldn't. Proving Benford's law is quite challenging I imagine (as most proofs are), if you just count numbers that begin with one and find a percentage, you won't be proving anything - instead you will have more data that follows the law, but that's it. I don't know what another variable could be either, so I can't help you in that aspect. Maybe you should talk to your math teacher and ask him/her what would be best for you to do? Otherwise, you might want to look for another topic...

But before; a quick note: I do not take math studies. All my knowledge about the IA comes from this post, which is quite old (3 years). So things might have changed since then, but I don't think they have as far as I know. I suggest you do some further research about the IA format before you take my advice, or maybe a current math studies student will provide some more insight. Anyway the post i linked to just before is really helpful, you might want to read through it.