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A comment on Why isn't everything normally distributed?. Parent comment

Re:Why isn't everything normally distributed? by DINKDINK on Thursday July 20, 2017 @06:59PM (#14816931)
I think it's about size and independence. Gaussian distributions connote small scale (the background noise of the electrical output of this sensor) vs power laws connote large scale (the number of electrical sensors per company) that you normally deal with in your field.

The size of a ruler that a machine cuts (quasi normal/Gaussian)

Wealth (Power/Pareto)

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Re:Why isn't everything normally distributed? by marcosdumay on Thursday July 20, 2017 @07:21PM (#14817010)
It's not exactly scale. Things tend to fit a Gaussian when individuals tend towards the mean, and power laws when there are "the rich get richer" processes pushing individuals towards extrema.
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