The law of small numbers may refer to
- The Law of Small Numbers (book), authored by Ladislaus Bortkiewicz
- The Poisson distribution. Sometimes probability distributions are called laws, and the use of that name for this distribution originated in the book The Law of Small Numbers
- Hasty generalization, a logical fallacy also known as 'the law of small numbers'
- the tendency for an initial segment of data to show some bias that drops out later (one example in number theory being Kummer's conjecture on cubic Gauss sums)
- Pigeonhole principle, the occurrence of mathematical coincidences
- Random sequence should reflect the proportion, in order for a sequence to be considered representative, people think that every segment of a random sequence should reflect the true proportion
- the Strong Law of Small Numbers, an observation made by the mathematician Richard K. Guy
- the Intellectual Law of Small Numbers, an observation by the sociologist Randall Collins in his book The Sociology of Philosophies
Famous quotes containing the words law, small and/or numbers:
“It is a law of life that human beings, even the geniuses among them, do not pride themselves on their actual achievements but that they want to impress others, want to be admired and respected because of things of much lower import and value.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)
“Sweet death, small son, our instrument
Of immortality,
Your cries and hungers document
Our bodily decay.”
—Donald Hall (b. 1928)
“... there are persons who seem to have overcome obstacles and by character and perseverance to have risen to the top. But we have no record of the numbers of able persons who fall by the wayside, persons who, with enough encouragement and opportunity, might make great contributions.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)