Note
Power law distributions have a well defined mean only if the exponent exceeds 1 and have a finite variance only when the exponent exceeds two. To apply the central limit theorem (and related statistics) to a power law distributed variable it is first necessary to ensure that the distribution has an exponent that exceeds 2.
Read more about this topic: Power Law
Famous quotes containing the word note:
“In it he proves that all things are true and states how the truths of all contradictions may be reconciled physically, such as for example that white is black and black is white; that one can be and not be at the same time; that there can be hills without valleys; that nothingness is something and that everything, which is, is not. But take note that he proves all these unheard-of paradoxes without any fallacious or sophistical reasoning.”
—Savinien Cyrano De Bergerac (16191655)
“A note as from a single place,
A slender tinkling fall that made
Now drops that floated on the pool
Like pearls, and now a silver blade.”
—Robert Frost (18741963)
“In our Mechanics Fair, there must be not only bridges, ploughs, carpenters planes, and baking troughs, but also some few finer instruments,rain-gauges, thermometers, and telescopes; and in society, besides farmers, sailors, and weavers, there must be a few persons of purer fire kept specially as gauges and meters of character; persons of a fine, detecting instinct, who note the smallest accumulations of wit and feeling in the bystander.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)