One mathematical model can account for power-law distributions in a variety of systems. Eschewing system-specific assumptions, it utilizes a shared feature of the observed distributions: they all describe the division of items into groups.
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Adamic, L. Unzipping Zipf's law. Nature 474, 164–165 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/474164a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/474164a
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