
Ask HN: What is your favorite mathematical law or scientific principle? Why? - rblion
I am always absorbing more and more about the cosmos, what a joy and a blessing to feel like a kid in an adult&#x27;s body.<p>HN is the brightest and most productive group of people I have access to currently, every day I am reminded of just how much I have to learn but also how far I have come.<p>Where better than here to ask this question and get quality responses from people who see the obvious value of math and science?
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jblindsay
Tobler's first 'law' of geography: All things are related but nearer things
are more related than distant things. This is the concept that describes
regularity and order to all spatially variable phenomenon. It is essentially
the concept of spatial autocorrelation. Without it, the world would be a
chaotic place. Imagine if moving from one room to another meant you could
encounter a 100-degree drop in temperature or if you had to regularly face a
100 m drop in elevation when walking 100 m down a road. It also means that we
can infer an underlying spatial distribution from a sub-sample of point
measurements, which is central to understanding most geographical phenomena.

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daxat_staglatz
Power laws in economics [0]:

    
    
        Many of the insights of economics seem to be
        qualitative, with many fewer reliable quantitative laws.
        However a series of power laws in economics do count as
        true and nontrivial quantitative laws—and they are not
        only established empirically, but also understood
        theoretically.
        I will start by providing several illustrations of
        empirical power laws having to do with patterns involving
        cities, firms, and the stock market. I summarize some of
        the theoretical explanations that have been proposed.
        I suggest that power laws help us explain many economic
        phenomena, including aggregate economic fluctuations.
        I hope to clarify why power laws are so special, and to
        demonstrate their utility.
        In conclusion, I list some power-law-related economic
        enigmas that demand further exploration.
    

[0]
[https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.30.1.185](https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.30.1.185)

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NedIsakoff
"No free lunch in search and optimization" \-->
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_free_lunch_in_search_and_op...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_free_lunch_in_search_and_optimization)

