Geometrical aspects in the distribution of languages and urban settlements

M.A.f Gomes

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2001, vol. 295, issue 1, 9-16

Abstract: A discussion of certain geometrical aspects in the distribution of living languages as well as in the distribution of urban settlements is made with emphasis in scaling laws and fractals. It is shown that a power law scaling exists for the distribution n(s) of islands of s habitations in a spontaneous urban settlement. An analogy between the scaling laws appearing in the distribution of languages and in the distribution of urban settlements is made and a conjecture about n(s) is advanced.

Keywords: Diversity; Languages; Scaling laws; Urban settlements (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2001
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:295:y:2001:i:1:p:9-16

DOI: 10.1016/S0378-4371(01)00047-4

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