Abstract
Recently, I became interested in a current debate over whether file size
distributions are best modelled by a power law distribution or a lognormal distribution.
In trying to learn enough about these distributions to settle the question, I found a rich
and long history, spanning many fields. Indeed, several recently proposed models from
the computer science community have antecedents in work from decades ago. Here,
I briefly survey some of this history, focusing on underlying generative models that
lead to these distributions. One finding is that lognormal and power law distributions
connect quite naturally, and hence, it is not surprising that lognormal distributions
have arisen as a possible alternative to power law distributions across many fields.
Users
Please
log in to take part in the discussion (add own reviews or comments).