Power law

Not to be confused with Force (law). For other uses, see Power (disambiguation).
"Scaling law" redirects here. For statistical laws of scaling deep learning models, see Neural scaling law.
An example power-law graph that demonstrates ranking of popularity. To the right is the long tail, and to the left are the few that dominate (also known as the 80–20 rule).

In statistics, a power law is a functional relationship between two quantities, where a relative change in one quantity results in a relative change in the other quantity proportional to the change raised to a constant exponent: one quantity varies as a power of another. The change is independent of the initial size of those quantities.

For instance, the area of a square has a power law relationship with the length of its side, since if the length is doubled, the area is multiplied by 22, while if the length is tripled, the area is multiplied by 32, and so on.[1]

  1. ^ Yaneer Bar-Yam. "Concepts: Power Law". New England Complex Systems Institute. Retrieved 18 August 2015.