El Presidente Posted November 18, 2020 Share Posted November 18, 2020 Doing some study on complexity theory. Came across Zipf's laws. I found it fascinating at least particularly as it pertains to cities Zipf's law implies that, in a system of cities, the largest city is roughly twice the size of the second largest city, about three times the size of the third largest city, and so on. ... Largest cities in the USA Here is a ranking of the 10 largest cities in the USA. Rank City Population 1 New York, N.Y. 8,491,079 2 Los Angeles, Calif. 3,928,864 3 Chicago, Ill. 2,722,389 4 Houston, Tex. 2,239,558 5 Philadelphia, Pa. 1,560,297 6 Phoenix, Ariz. 1,537,058 7 San Antonio, Tex. 1,436,697 8 San Diego, Calif. 1,381,069 9 Dallas, Tex. 1,381,069 10 San Jose, Calif. 1,015,785 There are anomalies, but the theory holds up well across the globe. Complexity theory is not as dry as I thought it would be 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mprach024 Posted November 19, 2020 Share Posted November 19, 2020 Good ol’ George Zipf, of course we all know him well. ? Boss you need me to send you some suggested books, movies, tv shows? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Presidente Posted November 19, 2020 Author Share Posted November 19, 2020 2 minutes ago, mprach024 said: Good ol’ George Zipf, of course we all know him well. ? Boss you need me to send you some suggested books, movies, tv shows? I am happy just to get the "gist " of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedLantern Posted November 19, 2020 Share Posted November 19, 2020 How do you account for "city" vs metro area? For example, the distinction between NYC proper and other contiguous development is a legal distinction not a cultural or social one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuzz Posted November 20, 2020 Share Posted November 20, 2020 Well, it doesn't work here.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zaxeiler Posted November 20, 2020 Share Posted November 20, 2020 In a system of cigar producers, is the largest selling twice the volume of the second largest... ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Hoze Posted November 20, 2020 Share Posted November 20, 2020 On 11/18/2020 at 10:03 PM, RedLantern said: How do you account for "city" vs metro area? For example, the distinction between NYC proper and other contiguous development is a legal distinction not a cultural or social one. I believe if you look at it as metro area to metro area the same math plays out. Lots of complexity references on the board lately, another post yesterday referenced Murray Gell-Mann who founded the Santa Fe Institute, a think tank focused on complex adaptive systems. Also today on google is a dedication to Benoit Mandelbrot. I have my undergrad in applied math and statistics and reading Gell-Mann or Mandelbrot and I’m over my head pretty quickly. But super cool stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.png.9c3d798c7bff27b9a437c0a03c703654.png)
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now