Wealth Distribution among the billionaires of 2013 Forbes and Hurun Rich Lists

The Empirical Evidence for Entropy Outside Physics

Mexicos telecom tycoon, Carlos Slim Helu, the worlds richest man, four years in a row, and some of the richest on the planet in 2013; see http://blogsimages.forbes.com/luisakroll/files/2013/03/0304_billies-khan-dorsey-toryprada-brin-woodman_400x280.jpg

1. Summary
The discussion of the enigmatic idea of entropy (can be skipped!) is being offered in this article mainly to provide a different perspective as we analyze the wealth distribution among billionaires in different countries, using x-y diagrams, as was also done earlier with the Forbes billionaires. Here x is the number of billionaires N and y is the combined net worth of N billionaires (also denoted as UN). The snapshot of the world situation represents a macrostate of the billionaire system at a given point in time. The microstates of this system are the country by country wealth distribution, at one level, and
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the individual wealth of the billionaires within a country, at another level. The change in the average net worth U = UN/N, as revealed by the changes in the slopes h of the graphs can thus be related to the notion of entropy or temperature of the system. We already use the notion of temperature, figuratively speaking, in our discussions on the stock markets, and in other social and political discussion (such as a hot golfer, or a political candidate, or hot news).

2. Introduction
In this article, we will continue the discussion of the differences between the wealth distribution of billionaires in the Forbes and the Hurun 2013 lists, see a) http://www.scribd.com/doc/131764299/Average-Net-Worth-ofBillionaires-by-Country-The-2013-Hurun-Rich-List, or click here , b) http://www.scribd.com/doc/131830628/Wealth-DistributionBetween-the-2013-Forbes-and-the-Hurun-Rich-Lists and click here

Table 1: Comparison of the Forbes and Hurun Rich lists

Forbes 2013 Hurun 2013 Billionaires Rich List Worldwide billionaires, N 1426 1453 Number of countries 64 56 Combined worldwide wealth, UN $5.425 trillion $5.491 trillion US billionaires, N 442 409 US combined net worth, UN $1.872 trillion $1.712 trillion Chinese billionaires, N 122 317 Chinese combined net worth $262.91 billion $810.1 billion All other billionaires, N 860 727 All others combined net worth $3289.9 billion $2968.8 billion About $550 billion added to Chinese wealth and $160 billion taken away from US wealth. Hence, a significant difference in the wealth distribution among billionaires from all the other countries (56 versus 64) in these two lists.

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USA (442, $1.87 T)

China (122, $263 B)

All others (860, $3.29T)

The figures used in this cartoon depiction of Table 1 data are from the Forbes 2013 Billionaires list.

Table 1 provides a brief comparison of the two lists, while Table 2 provides a detailed country by country listing and a comparison of the combined net worth (symbol UN ) of all the N billionaires in each country. The observations on their wealth, in 2013, provide a snapshot at a fixed point in time. With the passage of time, the number of billionaires N, their combined net worth UN , and their average worth U = UN/N can either increase or decrease. New billionaires appear and some present ones also disappear and fall of the list. More importantly, the comparison between the 2013 Forbes and Hurun rich lists leads to the conclusion that approximately the same total wealth ($5.425 trillion according to Forbes and $5.491 billion according to Hurun) is being distributed differently among 1424 billionaires, in 64 countries, according to Forbes, and among the 1453 billionaires, spread over 56 countries, according to Hurun. In other words, the same macrostate, the total worldwide billionaire wealth, is seen here to gives rise to different microstates, the individual wealth distribution among the billionaires, or the country-averaged wealth presented in Tables 1 and 2.

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The more the number of ways, , of doing something (distributing wealth as being discussed here), the more the extent of chaos, or randomness, or disorder, in the system. In physics, and also among information theorists and economists, this enigmatic property of a system is also called the entropy and is defined as S = k ln + S0 where k is a proportionality constant, also called the Boltzmann constant (and so also written as kB), is the number of microstates corresponding to an observed macrostate and S0 is a nonzero additive constant. The nonzero S0 means that even in the limit when = 1, the entropy S must be considered to be nonzero. In the following section we will discuss how entropy arises in the problem of wealth distribution among the billionaires by considering the examples given by Planck (in 1900) and Boltzmann (1877). This lead us naturally to the discussion of the differences in the wealth distribution using the x-y diagram such as UN-N (combined net worth UN versus number of billionaires N).

USA (442, $1.87 T)

China (122, $263 B)

All others (860, $3.29T)

Min 131 countries with zero billionaires

We should not overlook the countries with ZERO billionaires. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/countries_of_the_world.htm http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/03/04/forbes_billionaires_list _countries_with_the_most_billionaires_per_capita.html# Which Country Has the Most Billionaires Per Capita? By Emma Roller, March 4, 2013.
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Table 2: Comparison of Wealth distribution in Forbes and Hurun lists

Country
Angola Argentina Australia Austria Belgium Belize Brazil Canada Chile China Taipei Colombia Cyprus Czech Rep Denmark Egypt Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Guernsey Hong Kong India Indonesia Ireland Israel Italy Japan Kazakhstan Kuwait Lebanon Liechtenstein Malaysia Mexico Monaco Morocco Nepal Netherlands

Hurun N
6 16 17 2 33 22 5 317 32 1 1 2 3 6 31 1 61 1

Hurun UN
13.5 62.0 67.7 6.7 133.8 77.8 42.1 810.1 74.1 14.0 1.0 10.0 11.7 9.4 251.4 6.4 311.5 2.7

Hurun U = UN/N
2.3 3.9 4.0 3.4 4.1 3.5 8.4 2.6 2.3 14.0 1.0 5.0 3.9 1.6 8.1 6.4 5.1 2.7

Forbes N

Forbes UN

Forbes U = UN/N

53 11 5 10 14 22 5 3 3 1 9 7 4 3 11

181.2 28.8 13.9 30.0 60.9 73.9 8.2 4.3 7.7 3.3 35.1 118.5 31.2 5.4 27.1

3.4 2.6 2.8 3.0 4.4 3.4 1.6 1.4 2.6 3.3 3.9 16.9 7.8 1.8 2.5

1 2.000 2.000 5 11.100 2.220 22 73.106 3.323 8 26.504 3.313 2 5.800 2.900 1 1.000 1.000 46 189.290 4.115 29 92.046 3.174 14 61.348 4.382 122 262.910 2.155 26 72.800 2.800 5 34.500 6.900 3 13.650 4.550 4 14.900 3.725 6 18.498 3.083 7 18.550 2.650 1 3.100 3.100 24 142.848 5.952 1 5.300 5.300 58 296.264 5.108 3 8.601 2.867 1 1.500 1.500 39 193.089 4.951 55 193.600 3.520 25 55.250 2.210 5 21.900 4.380 17 46.257 2.721 23 112.907 4.909 22 68.398 3.109 5 9.200 1.840 5 6.150 1.230 6 13.998 2.333 Rich, landlocked in Switzerland and Austria 10 48.750 4.875 15 148.500 9.900 3 4.449 1.483 3 6.501 2.167 1 1.000 1.000 6 21.252 3.542

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Table 2 (Contd): Comparison of Wealth distribution in Forbes and Hurun lists

Country
N. Zealand Nigeria Norway Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Romania Russia Saudi Arabia Singapore S. Africa S. Korea Spain Sweden St. Kitts & Nevis Switzerland Swaziland Thailand Turkey UAE UK Ukraine USA Venezuela Vietnam USA China All others Worldwide

Hurun N
1 4 4 2 6 5 4 1 88 9 11 4 17 14 7

Hurun UN
6.0 22.4 10.1 3.4 23.5 11.9 9.3 2.8 368.6 64.3 28.7 15.4 30.6 88.3 54.0

Hurun U = UN/N
6.0 5.6 2.5 1.7 3.9 2.4 2.3 2.8 4.2 7.1 2.6 3.9 1.8 6.3 7.7

Forbes N
3 2 6 10 11 4 3 1 110 8 10 6 24 20 14 1 13 1 43 10 4 37 10 442 1 1 442 122 860 1424

Forbes UN
9.150 20.800 17.100 23.300 39.853 9.800 8.550 1.100 427.130 55.552 31.600 22.002 56.352 99.960 88.298 1.500 50.297 3.100 74.218 32.100 9.752 121.101 32.100 1872.312 3.267 1.500 1872.3 262.9 3289.9 5425.1

Forbes U = UN/N
3.050 10.400 2.850 2.330 3.623 2.450 2.850 1.100 3.883 6.944 3.160 3.667 2.348 4.998 6.307 1.500 3.869 3.100 1.726 3.210 2.438 3.273 3.210 4.236 3.267 1.500 4.236 2.155

41 5 31 8 55 7 409 2

190.0 28.4 56.1 21.7 187.2 13.2 1,712.3 7.6

4.6 5.7 1.8 2.7 3.4 1.9 4.2 3.8

409 317 727 1453

1712.3 810.1 2968.8 5491.2

4.2 3.8

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 3. Plancks Entropy Example Extended Beyond Physics

In a famous paper, presented to the German Physical Society on December 14, 1900, Max Planck explains how entropy arises in a system, as follows. This December 1900 is now considered to mark the birth of Quantum Physics. An English translation of this paper can be found in the book Great Experiments in Physics, Edited by Morris H. Shamos (Dover Publications, Inc. 1959, pp. 301-314). Planck considers the problem of distributing a fixed vibrational energy UN among N particles. (These are called resonators, or oscillators, since from earlier papers published by Planck it is clear that he considers them to microscopic electrically charged particles that vibrate about some mean position and radiate electromagnetic energy at all possible frequencies.) To quote Planck, If one denotes the resonators by the numbers 1, 2, 3, .N and writes these side by side, and if one sets under each resonator the number of energy elements assigned to it by some arbitrary distribution, then one obtains for every complex a pattern of the following form. Here we assume, Planck continues, that N = 10 and P = 100. The number of all possible complexes is obviously equal to the number of arrangements that one can obtain in this fashion for the lower row, for a given N and P. For the sake of brevity we should note that two complexes must be considered different if the corresponding number patterns contain the same number but in different order. From combination theory (elementary theory of permutations and combinations), one obtains the number of all possible complexes as (this will be explained fully as we proceed): = (N + P 1)! /(N 1)!P! And, Entropy S = S0 + k ln ..(1) ...(2)

In equation 1, N! is the factorial of N and N! = N(N 1)(N 2) 3 x 2 x 1. Thus, 3! = 6 and 5! = 5 x 4 x 3 x 2x 1 = 120. And, 16!/15! = 16, very simple.
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What is P? The total energy UN = NU is the product of N, the number of particles, and U, the average energy. (In our billionaire problem energy is replaced by money and N is the number of billionaires.) Planck says that we can write this same product as P where is some elementary energy unit (which is left undefined at the beginning of the paper). Hence, the total energy UN = NU = P And, U/ = P/N ..(3) ..(4)

Here N and P are very large integers. Equation 4 gives the average energy U in terms of the integers N and P and an elementary unit . Instead of associating the ideas of energy and entropy, as conceived by Planck, with particles or resonators in physics, nothing stops us from associating other meanings to the mathematical symbols in equations 1 to 4. Instead of energy distribution we can think about the distribution of money.

Plancks description of a complexion, or microstates, of a system which gives rise to a given macrostate
Particle Energy units, 1 7 2 38 3 11 4 0 5 9 6 2 7 20 8 4 9 4 10 5

One possible complexion, or arrangement ,of particles with total energy equal P for N = 10 and P = 100. The sum of the numbers in the lower row is 100. Obviously, there are many ways in which P = 100 units of some elementary can be distributed among the N. This is also what we mean by a microstates which lead to a macrostate of UN = NU = P. Planck was not a statistician (very few of us are ). In fact, he detested the whole idea of statistical, or probabilistic, arguments that had been introduced to interpret the laws of thermodynamics (see reviews of Plancks work by
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Gearhart and by Kragh cited in the reference list), first by James Clerk Maxwell (who developed the famous Maxwellian distribution of molecular velocities and the Maxwells demon paradox, click here) and then later by Ludwig Boltzmann, who founded the whole field called statistical mechanics, statistical physics, or statistical thermodynamics. Planck simply uses Boltzmanns expression for , given in latters 1877 paper (see review by Gearhart, page 182, click here). Boltzmann gives the classical expression from permutation and combination theory, equation 5, and then follows it with equation 1. = N! /N0! N1! N2! ..(5)

Here there are a total of N entities of which N0 are identical of one kind (say red balls), then N1 are identical of a second kind (say blue balls), and so on. To explain the meaning of entropy, Boltzmann describes the possible microstates of an ensemble of n gas molecules, with w0 having zero energy, w1 having energy , w2 having energy 2, and so on. The total number of complexions is then given by equation 5 and the expression for entropy follows. Boltzmann was describing a continuous distribution of energy (as all physicists then believed). However, in his example, to clarify the application of equation 5, he considers a quantized distribution - the number of ways of distributing a total energy of 7 among 7 particles; see also my recent discussion of this example, click here. There are a total of 15 possible states in which the system of 7 molecules can exist. If one molecule has all the 7, see illustration above, then there are 7 different ways in which the system can exist, with (0000007) being one possible way, see below, and each molecule in turn gets the 7 for the seven ways. Boltzmanns example of energy distribution between 7 molecules Particle No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Energy units, 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 One way of giving all 7 energy to one particle in a system of 7 particles
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If all seven molecules are assumed to have an equal energy of , there is only one way to distribute the energy (1111111). These are the two extreme cases. The macrostate of (0001123) has the maximum number of possibilities being equal to 420, and so on. The reader is encouraged to work this out. We have to distribute 3 to one molecule, then 2 to one molecule, and finally and each to two more molecules for a total of 7. (Likewise, it is a good exercise to work out the total number of microstates for each macrostate given in Table 1 of Gearharts review article.) As discussed by Gearhart, Boltzmann seems to imply that the expression for given in equation 1 is equivalent to the familiar expression from permutations and combination theory, given below. The problem of wealth distribution between the billionaires in different countries is clearly exactly analogous to the example discussed by both Planck and Boltzmann. Instead of distributing energy U between N particles, molecules, oscillator, resonators, etc. we have to distribute money, often a fixed total amount of money between N individuals, in this case billionaires. One could also conceive of a distribution of revenues between N products of a company. Or, the price of the various stocks in an index such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA, with 30 stocks), S & P 500, NASDAQ, and so on. Or, we can consider the distribution of gasoline prices in various states, or regions of a country, or the number of employed and unemployed workers. In other words, we can associate any meaning to the symbols U and UN and N as being discussed here, not necessarily energy as discussed in the Planck and the Boltzmann examples. More recently, in order to explain the meaning of entropy, as it arises in the discussion of the flow of heat in an engine, La Porta (see Ref. [22] or click here) has discussed the simple of distributing 4 pennies between two groups A and B. After discussing some simple case, one of which is given below, he then gives equation 1 as the general expression for the total number of
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possible states in which the groups can exists if P units of money (pennies) are to be distributed among N people.

Figure 1: Example from La Porta, the distribution of four pennies between the two groups A and B. If Group A has all four pennies, it can exist in five possible states. Since Group B has zero pennies, there is only one possible state. The total ways of distributing the four pennies is m x n = 5 x 1 = 5 and entropy is proportional to logarithm of 5 or ln(5). If both group A and B have two pennies each, they can distribute in 3 ways each (0, 2), (1, 1), (2, 0) and the total ways is 3 x 3 = 9. The entropy has increased and is proportional to ln (9). alaporta@umd.edu (based on following Google search)
La Porta Lab at UMD www2.physics.umd.edu/~alaporta/LaPorta.html Arthur La Porta. As interdisciplinary research has come to play a larger role in physics, the very definition of what constitutes physics research has become an ... [PDF] What is Entropy? www2.physics.umd.edu/~alaporta/PHYS171_f12/.../pennies.pdf File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View What is Entropy? Arthur La Porta. December 11, 2012. The second law of thermodynamics states that the entropy S of an isolated system can only increase or ...

Finally, it should be noted that the idea of entropy was first enunciated by Rudolf Clausius, in 1853/54 (click here) in his theoretical speculations on the
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workings of a modern heat engine (such as the engines we find in our cars, planes, trains, rocket, spacecrafts, etc.). Then in the 1870s, Boltzmann developed the statistical basis for entropy calculations and also gave the following formula for the entropy S of a system. Plancks use of the Boltzmann expressions given here led to the birth of quantum physics. To complete the discussion of entropy, Planck converts the factorials in the expression for into exponents, using Stirlings approximation, N! NN . After some algebraic manipulations, Planck shows that the total entropy SN = NS, where S is the average entropy, is given by the following expression. SN = k ln Nk { [1 + (P/N)] ln [1 + (P/N)] (P/N) ln (P/N) } ..(6) And, S = k { [1 + (P/N)] ln [1 + (P/N)] (P/N) ln (P/N) } ..(7)

After arriving at this expression for the average entropy S, Planck eliminates the integers N and P from the discussion using P/N = U/ (see also page 188, Geartharts review). Then, we can reinterpret the next step taken by Planck as defining a new quantity T = dU/dS or 1/T = dS/dU. Although the symbol T means the temperature of the system in physics, for the moment, let us recognize T as the derivative dU/dS, the slope of the graph of S versus U, or the rate at which the average U increases as the average entropy S increases. We can continue to use the term temperature, figuratively speaking, to describe this derivative T = dU/dS when we associate alternative meanings with the mathematical symbols U and S. Instead of energy U we could be talking about distribution of money or any other desired property of the system of interest. The system which has the property U can exist in many possible states and so has entropy. The derivative dU/dS is called T. Also, we recognize UN = NU = P and conceive an elementary unit to distribute the property of interest.
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Now, when we perform the differentiation, and determine 1/T = dS/dU, we arrive at the desired relation between the average U and the elementary . U = [ e-/kT /(1 e-/kT) ] = (P/N) ..(8)

The expression for U tells how the average U will increase or decrease, in any complex system, with many possible microstates, as the new property called T, for which we can use the term temperature if we wish, increases or decreases. The proportionality constant k is associated with T and the product kT has the same units as , making the ratio /kT a pure number, or dimensionless quantity. And, instead of energy U we could be thinking of money, or wealth, as in the wealth distribution of billionaires which led to the above discussion. To complete the story, and see how all of this applies to the billionaire wealthy distribution, Planck incorporates his expression for U into the power-law expression for radiation intensity, or energy density to arrive at his famous blackbody radiation law. u = (8/c3)2 U = (8h/c3) 3 [ e-h/kT / (1 - e-h/kT) ] (9)

The first equality in equation 9 is given as equation 8 on page 311 in Plancks paper (see book by Shamos). It is also highlighted in the review by Gearhart, see page 176. Great Experiments in Physics, Edited by Morris H. Shamos (Dover Publications, Inc. 1959, pp. 301-314). Planck refers to the quantity u as the energy density. Other terms are also used for this quantity, like intensity of radiation, radiation density, spectral energy density. Here c in the speed of light and is the frequency of the radiation spectrum being observed. U is the average energy of the oscillator, or resonator. Before Plancks theory, U = kT and with this expression for U equation 9 becomes the Rayleigh-Jeans law. Plancks determination of the
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average U gives rise to equation 8 and the second equality in equation 9. Only at this step, Planck says that the unknown = h where h is a universal constant. Thus, Planck introduces two new constants into physics, h and k, the Boltzmann constant, via the expression for entropy. Now, using a broader generalization of Planck ideas, as just suggested, we can rewrite Plancks law as follows, using the most general mathematical symbols. y = mxn [e-ax /(1 + be-ax) ] + c ..(10)

The expression within the square brackets of equation 10 is the expression for U, rewritten in its most generalized form when U means any property of interest, with which we associate the notions of U and S and and a T = dU/dS. In Plancks original theory a = h/kT, b = - 1, c = 0, n = 3, and the variable x = , the frequency of the vibration of the Planck oscillators, or resonators, or the frequency of the observed radiant energy spectrum. The constant m = 8h/c3 with the quantity c in the constant m being the speed of light. For the special case of a = 0, b = 0 and n = 1, equation 10 becomes the equation of the straight line y = mx + c = m(x x0) when m being the slope of the line and c the nonzero intercept. When x = 0, y = c is nonzero. Or, when y goes to zero, x = x0 = -c/m is nonzero. For a straight line passing through the origin, y = mx and the ratio y/x = m = constant. If the straight line does NOT pass through the origin, however, which is the most general case, the ratio y/x = m + (c/x) can either increase or decrease as x increases depending on the numerical values of the slope m and the nonzero intercept c.

3. From Planck to Einsteins work function

The nonzero intercept c was introduced into quantum physics by Einstein, see references cited, when he extended Plancks idea to discuss the nature of radiation in the form of light.
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Einstein starts out by considering a volume within which light radiation is present and associates the properties and energy and entropy with the light radiation. Actually, Einstein associates three properties with light, energy U, entropy S and also the idea of temperature of light, T. Does light have a temperature? We do not normally think about light in this way. We often talk about heat and light as being different ideas and associate the notion of temperature only with heat. But, Einstein discusses the energy and entropy of light and defines its temperature as T = dU/dS and 1/T = dS/dU, just as Planck did, and as I have proposed above in the generalization to discuss any property of a complex system of interest to us. In his discussion, Einstein uses the simpler version of Plancks law (also called Wiens law), which in the most general form is y = mxne-ax. Using this simpler expression, Einstein develops expressions for the entropy associated with light, see Refs. [25-27], essentially reversing all of Plancks arguments. Thus, Einstein arrives at the conception of light being a stream of particles with the elementary energy of Planck. Following this, Einstein proposes the remarkably simple linear law K = W = hf W = h(f f0). This is the general equation for a straight line y = hx + c with x being the frequency f, y the maximum kinetic energy of electron K and E = hf is the energy of the photon (or Planck elementary = h = hf) that produces the electron. W is the energy that must be given up to produce the electron. This introduces the nonzero intercept W. The K-f graph thus has an finite intercept c = - W on the vertical axis (K-axis, or electron energy axis) and a finite intercept f0 = W/h on the horizontal axis (the frequency or f-axis). This provides is with a different perspective as we analyze the wealth distribution, using x-y diagram, as was also done earlier with the Forbes billionaires, see Refs. [16-20].

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Posted on my Facebook page on March 24, 2013

Vj Laxmanan

The more the number of ways of doing something, the greater is the 'chaos', or 'randomness', or 'disorder' in a system. Elementary statistics teaches us about permutations and combinations. The more the permutations or combinations, the more the ways. The logarithm of this taken as the numerical measure of the property called entropy.
The Empirical Evidence for Entropy Outside Physics: Wealth Distribution among the billionaires of 2013 Forbes and Hurun Rich Lists www.scribd.com

Posted at Forbes website under Mapping the Wealth

Vj Laxmanan 8 minutes ago (as of March 24, 2013, 6:56 AM)

I have just uploaded the document discussing what is often called an enigmatic property the entropy of a system and how it applies to the wealth distribution of billionaires. I have just uploaded the document discussing what is often called an enigmatic property the entropy of a system and how it applies to the wealth distribution of billionaires. As posted on my Facebook page earlier today, The more the number of ways of doing something, the greater is the chaos, or randomness, or disorder in a system. Elementary statistics teaches us about permutations and combinations. The more the permutations or combinations, the more the ways. The logarithm of this taken as the numerical measure of the property called entropy. This is the simplest explanation that I can think of. The problem of distribution of four pennies between two groups A and B, which is also discussed here (borrowed from a recent post on What is Entropy? by Arthur La Porta) provides a nice illustration. In physics, this idea of entropy S, is related to two other properties of a system, its energy U and its temperature T. Planck defines temperature T as the derivative dU/dS, or 1/T = dS/dU, the rate of increase of entropy as the energy increases.

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In the billionaire problem, the energy U is the average wealth of the billionaires. The entropy S has to do with how the wealth is distributed. The temperature T of this system tells us how wealth increases or decreases as a function of time, number of billionaires, etc. Ultimately, it is manifested by the changes in the slope of the graph of the combined wealth of billionaires (for each country, what I call UN, or U with subscript N). This is just a bit of a digression. I have finished analyzing the Forbes and Hurun rich lists on this basis and the results are indeed amazing More in the next article. For now, you can read about entropy, see http://www.scribd.com/doc/132059874/The-Empirical-Evidence-for-Entropy-Outside-PhysicsWealth-Distribution-among-the-billionaires-of-2013-Forbes-and-Hurun-Rich-Lists

Related articles on the Billionaire Problem

1. Empirical Evidence for Entropy Outside Physics: Wealth Distribution among billionaires in the 2013 Forbes and Hurun Rich Lists, http://www.scribd.com/doc/132059874/The-Empirical-Evidence-forEntropy-Outside-Physics-Wealth-Distribution-among-the-billionaires-of2013-Forbes-and-Hurun-Rich-Lists Published March 24, 2013. 2. Wealth Distribution between the 2013 Forbes and Hurun Rich Lists, http://www.scribd.com/doc/131830628/Wealth-Distribution-Betweenthe-2013-Forbes-and-the-Hurun-Rich-Lists, Published Mar 22, 2013. 3. Average Net Worth by Country - Part 1: Preliminary Analysis of the 2013 Forbes Billionaire Data, Published March 18, 2013. http://www.scribd.com/doc/131208984/The-Average-Net-Worth-byCountry-Part-I-Analysis-of-the-2013-Forbes-Billionaires-Data 4. Average Net Worth by Country - Part 2: Analysis of the 2013 Worlds Billionaire Data, to be Published March xx, 2013. 5. China has fewer billionaires than most other large countries, Published March 21, 2013, http://www.scribd.com/doc/131583456/China-Has-Fewer-BillionairesAccording-to-the-Billionaire-Net-Worth-Analysis2013 6. Average Net Worth of Billionaires by Country: 2013 Hurun Rich List,
http://www.scribd.com/doc/131764299/Average-Net-Worth-of-Billionairesby-Country-The-2013-Hurun-Rich-List Published March 22, 2013.
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7. The Average Net Worth by Country, Part 1: Introducing the x-y Diagram, Preliminary Analysis of the Forbes 2013 Worlds Billionaires Data, Published March 19, 2013, http://www.scribd.com/doc/131208984/The-Average-Net-Worth-byCountry-Part-I-Analysis-of-the-2013-Forbes-Billionaires-Data 8. Average Net Worth by Country - Part 2: Analysis of the 2013 Worlds Billionaire Data, to be Published March xx, 2013. 9. The Recent Growth in the Average Worth of US Billionaires (09-13) A Curious Limits to Growth Revealed Again, Published March 18, 2013 http://www.scribd.com/doc/131005255/The-Recent-Growth-in-theAverage-Worth-of-US-Billionaires-%E2%80%9909-%E2%80%9813-ACurious-Limits-to-Growth-Revealed-Again 10.Quantitative Comparison of the Billionaires in the Forbes Hall of Fame, http://www.scribd.com/doc/130826078/Quantitative-Comparison-of-theBillionaires-in-the-Forbes-Hall-of-Fame Published March 17, 2013. 11.Growth in the Combined Net Worth of Billionaires from 2000-2013: An Interesting Limits to Growth is Revealed, Published March 15, 2013, http://www.scribd.com/doc/130517722/Growth-in-the-Combined-Net-Worthof-Billionaires-From-2000-2013-An-Interesting-Limit-to-Growth-is-Revealed 12.Growth of Billionaires Worldwide and in the USA: Analysis of the number of billionaires data since 1982, Published March 14, 2013, http://www.scribd.com/doc/130377891/The-Growth-of-BillionairesWorldwide-and-in-USA-Analysis-of-the-data-since-1982 13.Countries with the most billionaires in the 2013 Forbes Billionaire List, Published March 9, 2013, http://www.scribd.com/doc/129406030/Countrieswith-Most-Billionaires-in-the-Forbes-2013-Billionaires-List 14.Average worth of the Top 10 Billionaires in a Country, Published Mar 11, 2013, http://www.scribd.com/doc/129863162/Average-Worth-of-the-Top-10Billionaires-in-a-Country 15.Per Capita Trends for Ultra High Net Worth Residents in US Cities, Published March 11, 2013, http://www.scribd.com/doc/129722844/Per-CapitaTrends-for-the-Ultra-High-Net-Worth-UHNW-Residents-in-US-Cities 16.Europe and Asia-Pacific billionaires in the Forbes 2013 list: Whats the difference? Published March 10, 2013
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http://www.scribd.com/doc/129634796/Europe-and-Asia-Pacific-Billionairesin-the-2013-Forbes-List-What-s-the-difference 17. The Rate of Creation of Billionaires: Analysis of the Forbes 2013 Billionaire List, Published March 6, 2013, http://www.scribd.com/doc/128944910/The-Rate-of-Creation-ofBillionaires-Analysis-of-the-2013-Forbes-Billionaire-s-List 18. Billionaires and Calculus: Ratio versus Rate of Change Is Einsteins Work Function Observed In this Problem? Published March 5, 2013. http://www.scribd.com/doc/128610494/The-Forbes-Billionaires-andCalculus-Is-Einstein-s-Work-Function-Observed-Here 19. Billionaires and the Population Law: Analysis of the 2013 Forbes Billionaires List, to be published shortly.

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The Giants of Entropy and Statistical Physics

Sadi Carnot

Rudolf Clausius

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/80/Sadi_Carnot.jpeg/300pxSadi_Carnot.jpeg and http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/Clausius.jpg

1. Die Energie der Welt ist konstant. (First law of thermodynamics) The energy of the world is constant. The energy of the universe is constant. 2. Die Entropie der Welt strebt einem Maximum zu. (Second law of thermodynamics) The entropy of the world strives to a maximum. The entropy of the universe is increasing. Q T http://physics.info/thermo-second/ S =
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Equilibrium_of_Heterogeneous_Substances

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James Clerk Maxwell (18311879)

Ludwig Boltzmann (1844-1906)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Clerk_Maxwell http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Boltzmann

Max Planck in 1933 (1858-1947)

Einstein receives Planck medal

The inaugural award: Max Planck (left) presents Albert Einstein (right) with the Max Planck medal of the German Physical Society, 28 June 1929, in Berlin, Germany.

When Planck awarded the medal to Einstein he reportedly told Einstein that he was being given the medal for taking my horrible idea of energy quanta and turning it into the even more horrible idea of light quanta.
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Comments posted at Forbes website under Mapping the Wealth of the Worlds Billionaires

Vj Laxmanan 1 week ago (as of March 23, 2013)

Glad to see the new links here for billionaires from different regions. In fact, on Friday, I tried to go the local bookstores to get my copy of the Forbes billionaires issue and looks like it is not even in the stores yet. Anyway, I have just posted the following comparing the countries with the most billionaires (the number y) and the most billionaires per capita (the ratio y/x where x is the population). http://www.scribd.com/doc/129406030/Countries-with-Most-Billionaires-in-the-Forbes2013-Billionaires-List Guess, what? The mathematical analysis also shows that a minimum population is needed before a billionaire will appear. Hence, I would certainly like to investigate this phenomenon of the appearance of the first billionaire in several countries and also the historical growth of billionaries (with reliable estimates of the population). Now, I have a question. When did the first billionaire appear in the USA? I am assuming the first billionaire was from the US? Was it John D Rockefeller?
Reply

Vj Laxmanan 1 week ago

Now, I am also beginning to figure out the mystery of the 2 missing billionaires. When tabulated the billionaries and counted them, after sorting the Forbes list, I got 1424. Now, I see that no country of citizenship is given for one of the billionaires. There must be one more whose citizenship is not listed! Does it mean these two guys do not pay any taxes as well? Or, they just refuse to tell even Ms. Luisa Kroll their citizenship status? Cheers! :)

Vj Laxmanan 1 week ago

Glad the regional breakdown is available now. I find an interesting much too interesting difference between the data for Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, if we introduce population into the discussion. There is a lot of scatter in the Asia-Pacific data
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but this is absent in the European data. Take a look at Figures 1 and 2 in the document that I have just uploaded. Guess why? If I have perked your interest, you have to click on the link below and read on. http://www.scribd.com/doc/129634796/Europe-and-Asia-Pacific-Billionaires-in-the2013-Forbes-List-What-s-the-difference BTW, I have also used the map given here at the Forbes website as an eye catcher!
Reply

Vj Laxmanan 1 week ago (as of March 23, 2013, 7:50 AM)

Dear Ms. Luisa Kroll: I have just initiated today the analysis of the average wealth of billionaires in each country. The combined net worth of all the 442 US billionaires is given as $1.87 trillion and hence the average net worth can be determined. With countries with a small number of billionaires (up to 20 or so), I was able to do a country of citizenship sort and then find the combined and average net worth. However, for larger countries, this manual procedure is obviously cumbersome. Also, mistakes are possible. Hence, I would like your assistance to get the combined net worth and the average net worth figures for each country. From the distribution of the average net worth, it would be possible to develop a detailed understanding of the wealthy creation process. Look forward to your reply. Thanks and regards.
Reply

Vj Laxmanan 4 days ago

I just uploaded the following about the average worth of US Forbes billionaire. http://www.scribd.com/doc/131005255/The-Recent-Growth-in-the-Average-Worth-ofUS-Billionaires-%E2%80%9909-%E2%80%9813-A-Curious-Limits-to-GrowthRevealed-Again For the busy folks, just take a look at Figure 1 and then Figure 2. The brief summary is as follows. The average net worth of US billionaires is shown here to increase as the number of billionaires counted (in a given year) increases. Unfortunately, only the limited amount of data for the years 2009 to 2013, compiled from various sources after a significant amount of searching on the Internet, can be considered here. The data on the combined net worth of all US billionaires (and likewise for other countries) is not readily available and is not
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being compiled annually at this time. The significance of the nonlinear increase in the average net worth of US billionaire (and likewise for all billionaires worldwide, reported earlier) is discussed here briefly. There is an asymptotic limiting value to the average net worth, about $10 billion. The business and policy implications of this finding must be investigated. P. S. Please note remarks about country-by-country net worth and the average net worth. It would be very helpful to compile this info as well with future Forbes lists. Just my humble suggestion. Thanks.
Reply

Vj Laxmanan 17 hours ago (as of March 23, 2013, 7:50 AM)

Since I got interested in comparing the difference in the wealth distribution of billionaires in the Forbes and Hurun lists (for 2013), I had a chance to carefully check again why I get 1424 billionaires as opposed to the Forbes total of 1426. The mystery is now resolvedand lets see why.. The Infographic here, accompanying Mapping of Wealth, gives the Swiss count as 14 billionaires and the Egypt count as 8 billionaires. I have checked this carefully after sorting by country once again just before posting this today. Only the names of 13 billionaires appear in the Swiss list (ranks 94, 123, 198, 219, 458, 458, 670, 704, 736, 736, 831, and 1342). And names of only 3 billionaires are found for Egypt (ranks 182, 589, 670, 736, 736, 785 and 1031). Thats the reason for the discrepancy. Anyway, my interest is in the study of the difference in the wealth distribution pattern. The amazing thing about the Hurun and Forbes 2013 lists is that roughly the same total wealth is being distributed differently between 62 countries in the Forbes list and between 56 countries in the Hurun list. The difference in wealth distribution tells something about the extent of chaos, or randomness, or what physicists (and even some information theorist and computer scientists) call ENTROPY in the same system. I have put forward the idea before that (mathematically speaking) money in economics is just like energy in physics. Now, we see that there is entropy in this system. This is how Planck develops quantum physics by talking about how the same total energy can be distributed between a set of N particles. The more the ways, the more the entropy. Now, we have here, empirical observations from two respected sources about two ways of distributing roughly the same total wealth among billionaires. Cheers! Please see the most recent document I just uploaded, if I have sparked your interest. http://www.scribd.com/doc/131830628/Wealth-Distribution-Between-the-2013-Forbesand-the-Hurun-Rich-Lists

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 Author

Luisa Kroll, Forbes Staff 15 hours ago (as of March 23, 2013, 7:50 AM)

VJ, your interest in this, and thoroughness, are impressive..indeed the design team put the incorrect numbers on the map for Switzerland and Egypt, I assume because they were the next countries..I should have checked the map myself but was burnt out after billionaires and didnt catch. apologies. if you send me your email, I will send you the list of all places and number of billionaires in each spot, so you can solve the mystery..we are confident in our 1426

Called-out comment

Vj Laxmanan

Dear Ms. Luisa Kroll: Thanks and am glad I sparked interest in this mystery. Actually, since the billionaire counts for larger countries (USA, China) were given, I took the time to manually count myself (after sorting by country) to do the analysis I wanted to do. I double, triple, quadruple checked after the discrepancy of 2 showed up. Then, the Infographic was published and I checked my counts with the Infographic counts and the missing 2 were from Switzerland and Egypt. It is really a MINOR point, but when I see this kind of thing it bugs me. When I started the Hurun and Forbes comparison, I thought of sharing this and counted again today. So, it would be really interesting to have it checked out. My email ID is vlaxmanan@hotmail.com It is also given at the end of all the articles that I have uploaded. But here it is again, just for Ms. Kroll! Also, let me take this opportunity to make a couple more suggestions. Perhaps, Forbes should make the entire Microsoft Excel file available, as I found at Hurun. I have all their data downloaded and can sort it and do what I like.
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I am now working on an article to discuss the idea of ENTROPY and how it applies to the billionaire wealth distribution between countries. Second, when I click on say an article on the Forbes billionaires list for 2006, if I want to see the 2006 list, I cannot do so, although the article gives a link that is supposed to take me there. Instead I get an error (4-20 Forbes, I think) or am redirected to the 2013 list instead of the prior year list. I am prompted with a message to contact Forbes by sending an email but have been lazy so far to do it. I also want to study, for example, the combined net worth for US billionaires over time, say 2000-2013. I got the worldwide data easily but had to read articles for each year and read between the lines to get the numbers I am looking for. I got this for 2009-2013 but earlier years still working on it. (There is one article with data for 1982 to 2002 but not after that!) Since Forbes has pioneered this, going back to 1918 when the first Rich list was published, perhaps, this additional information would help other researchers on this topic. (I read a query from someone who wanted to find out what happened between 1935 and 1982.) Again, thanks for taking the time to reply and the favorable comments. Best regards. Cheers!

**************************************************** Posted on my Facebook Page on March 23, 2013 (Immediately after uploading this as a public document)
Vj Laxmanan Ah! Even all billionaires are not the same. And, we also have to worry about the wealth distribution among the billionaires. Here's the first comprehensive comparison of wealth distribution among billionaires in two widely used Rich Lists. Why am I so obsessed with this, you wonder? Energy in physics is just like money in economics -- this offers further proof for that fundamental theorem. http://www.scribd.com/doc/131830628/Wealth-Distribution-Between-the-2013Forbes-and-the-Hurun-Rich-Lists Wealth Distribution between the Forbes and Hurun Rich Lists, Published March 23, 2013.
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See also: http://www.scribd.com/doc/131764299/Average-Net-Worth-ofBillionaires-by-Country-The-2013-Hurun-Rich-List Average Net Worth of Billionaires by Country: 2013 Hurun Rich List, Published March 23, 2013.

********************************************************* Reference List

1. The First Rich List, by Arik Hesseldahl and Claudia DeMairo, September 27, 2002, http://www.forbes.com/2002/09/27/0927richestphotos.html see also http://www.forbes.com/2002/09/27/0927richest.html The combined fortune of the 30 richest was $3,680,000,000 ($3.68 B) and the average net worth was $0.123 B ($122,666,666). The full list of the 30 richest men in 1918 may be found on page 15 of 17 of this article. 2. The Forbes 400: The Richest People in America, by Luisa Kroll, September 19, 2012, http://www.forbes.com/sites/luisakroll/2012/09/19/the-forbes-400the-richest-people-in-america/ Price of entry into this most exclusive club was $75 million (in 1982). This years entry fee is $1.1 billion (in 2012). 3. The Forbes 400, by Matthew Miller and Duncan Greenberg, September 17, 2008, http://www.forbes.com/2008/09/16/forbes-400-billionaireslists-400list08_cx_mn_0917richamericans_land.html The rich haven't gotten
richer--or poorer--this year. For the second year in a row, the price of admission to The Forbes 400 is $1.3 billion. In this, the 27th edition of the list, the assembled net worth of America's wealthiest rose by $30 billion--only 2%--to $1.57 trillion

http://www.forbes.com/2008/09/16/forbes-400-billionaires-lists400list08_cx_mn_0917richamericans_land.html 4. The Forbes 400, by Matthew Miller, September 20, 2007, http://www.forbes.com/2007/09/19/forbes-400-introduction-listsrichlist07-cx_mm_0920richintro.html One billion dollars is no longer enough. The
price of admission to this, the 25th anniversary edition of the Forbes 400, is $1.3 billion, up $300 million from last year. The collective net worth of the nation's mightiest plutocrats rose $290 billion to $1.54 trillion.

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5. The 400 Richest Americans, by Matthew Miller and Tatiana Serafin, September 21, 2006, http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/54/biz_06rich400_The-400-RichestAmericans_land.html A nine-figure fortune wont get you much mention these days, at
least not here. This year, for the first time, everyone in The Forbes 400 has at least $1 billion. The collective net worth of the nations wealthiest climbed $120 billion, to $1.25 trillion.

6. The 400 Richest Americans, by Matthew Miller and Peter Newcomb, Sep 22, 2005, http://www.forbes.com/2005/09/19/400-richestamericans-2005-list_05rich400_land.html The lowest rank net worth was $900 million in 2005, full list is given here. 7. The Richest People in America, by Luisa Kroll, September 22, 2010, http://www.forbes.com/2010/09/21/forbes-400-gates-buffettfacebook-rich-list-10-intro.html The price of admission to the 400 is back up to the $1
billion mark. Last year it was $950 million, the first time since 2005 it had fallen below 10 figures.

8. The Forbes 400 Hall of Fame, by Sean Kilachand, Sep 20, 2012, http://www.forbes.com/sites/seankilachand/2012/09/20/the-forbes400-hall-of-fame-36-members-of-our-debut-issue-still-in-ranks/ 9. The March of the 400, by William P. Barrett, September 30, 2002, http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2002/0930/400080.html 10. Forbes 400 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbes_400 11. The New Forbes 400 and their $1.5 Trillion, by Inequality.org Staff, September 25, 2011, http://inequality.org/forbes-400-15-trillion/ 12. All the Money in the World: How the Forbes 400 Make and Spend their wealth, http://www.amazon.com/All-Money-World-Make-SpendTheir/product-reviews/030727876X 13. The Hurun Report, http://www.hurun.net/hurun/aboutusen.aspx 14. Hurun Global Rich List, http://www.hurun.net/usen/Default.aspx A Microsoft Excel with the full list of 1453 billionaires is available at this website, which was downloaded, sorted by country of citizenship, and analyzed to prepare this article. 15. Average Billionaire Net Worth by Country: Full list, by Edwin Durgy, March 13, 2013, http://www.forbes.com/sites/edwindurgy/2013/03/13/averagebillionaire-net-worth-by-country-full-list/
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16. Average Net Worth by Country - Part 1: Preliminary Analysis of the 2013 Forbes Billionaire Data, Published March 18, 2013. http://www.scribd.com/doc/131208984/The-Average-Net-Worth-byCountry-Part-I-Analysis-of-the-2013-Forbes-Billionaires-Data 17. Average Net Worth by Country - Part 2: Analysis of the 2013 Worlds Billionaire Data, to be Published March xx, 2013. 18. China has fewer billionaires than most other large countries, Published March 21, 2013, http://www.scribd.com/doc/131583456/China-Has-Fewer-BillionairesAccording-to-the-Billionaire-Net-Worth-Analysis2013 19. Average Net Worth of Billionaires by Country: 2013 Hurun Rich List,
http://www.scribd.com/doc/131764299/Average-Net-Worth-of-Billionairesby-Country-The-2013-Hurun-Rich-List Published March 22, 2013.

20. Wealth Distribution between the 2013 Forbes and Hurun Rich Lists, http://www.scribd.com/doc/131830628/Wealth-Distribution-Betweenthe-2013-Forbes-and-the-Hurun-Rich-Lists, Published Mar 22, 2013 21. Entropy, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy In 1877 Boltzmann visualized a
probabilistic way to measure the entropy of an ensemble of ideal gas particles, in which he defined entropy to be proportional to the logarithm of the number of microstates such a gas could occupy. Henceforth, the essential problem in statistical thermodynamics, i.e. according to Erwin Schrdinger, has been to determine the distribution of a given amount of energy E over N identical systems.

22. Entropy (Information theory) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy_%28information_theory%29 23. Planck, the Quantum and Historians, Phys. In Perspective, 4 (2002), pp. 170-215. by Clayton A. Gearhart, http://employees.csbsju.edu/cgearhart/pubs/PQH.pdf see discussion of Boltzmanns definition of entropy starting page 181, equations 5 and 6 on page 182, the expressions given here and Boltzmanns example of now entropy arises. Also, see equation 7 on page 186 for total number of complexions, equations 8 and 9 on page 188 and page 202. 24. What is Entropy? By V. Laxmanan, June 3, 2012, I have discussed Boltzmanns example from his 1877 paper here, Also discussed is the maximum point that is observed on the graph of profits versus revenues for Ford Motor Company, http://www.scribd.com/doc/95728457/What-is-Entropy
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25. What is Entropy? By Arthur La Porta, December 11, 2012, http://www2.physics.umd.edu/~alaporta/PHYS171_f12/lectures/penni es.pdf The entropy of a system is the logarithm of the number of microstates accessible to the system in a given macrostate, see the example of distribution of four pennies between two groups A and B. 26. Max Planck: The Reluctant Revolutionary, by Helge Kragh, Physics World, December 2000, pp. 31-35, http://www.math.lsa.umich.edu/~krasny/math156_article_planck.pdf 27. One Hundred Years of Quantum Physics, by Daniel Kleppner and Roman Jackiw, http://www.4physics.com/phy_demo/QM_Article/article.html 28. On a heuristic point of view about the creation and conversion of light, by A. Einstein, 1905, Einsteins original paper which showed light can be viewed as particles with fixed energy quanta, http://www.ffn.ub.es/luisnavarro/nuevo_maletin/Einstein_1905_heurist ic.pdf 29. On a heuristic point of view concerning the production and transformation of light, Paper 5, in Einsteins Miraculous Year: Five Papers that changed the face of physics, Princeton Univ. Press (1998). http://press.princeton.edu/einstein/materials/light_quanta.pdf 30. Einsteins Quanta, Entropy, and the Photoelectric Effect, by Dwight E. Neuenschwander, Excellent discussion about how Einstein arrives at his conception of light quanta from the property called entropy possessed by radiation in the form light,
http://www.sigmapisigma.org/radiations/2004/elegant_connections_f04.pdf

31. The electron and light quant from experimental point of view, May 23, 1924, Nobel Lecture, by Robert Millikan, see Figure 4 on page 63, for experiments with sodium. The straight line graph for photoelectric experiments confirms Einsteins law. The slope of the graph gives the universal Planck constant h, one of the fundamental constants of nature. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1923/millik an-lecture.pdf 32. What is Business Entropy? By Michael George, Institute of Business Entropy,
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33.

34. 35.

36.

37. 38.

http://www.entropy2718.com/linked/6e%20what%20is%20business% 20entropy%20%28rev%20f%29.pdf Stats: Counting Techniques, Good discussion of equation 5. http://people.richland.edu/james/lecture/m170/ch04-not.html In the word, STATISTICS, there are N = 10 letters, S = 3, T = 3, A = 1, I = 2, C = 1 and the total permutations is 10! /3! 3! 2! 1! = 50,400. CLAST, Statistics and Probability, http://www.fgcu.edu/CAA/lessons/CLASTps6counting_files/frame.htm Permutations with repeats, Advanced Concepts, http://www.mathwarehouse.com/probability/permutations-repeateditems.php Permutations and Combinations, http://www.themathpage.com/aprecalc/permutationscombinations.htm#principle Combination, Permutations and Elementary Probability, http://web.cs.du.edu/~aarias/permutation-combination.pdf Permutation, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permutation

Vj Laxmanan 2 weeks ago (Today is March 21, 2013)

Hi Luisa Kroll: As indicated in earlier comments, I got interested in the analysis of the rate at which billionaires are created in a population. I have now compiled my list of the number of billionaires for all 64 countries in the Forbes 2013 list. I did this by sorting the Forbes list by country and manual counting. It was easy since, when I sort, Forbes gives the list for each country separated into groups of 10 and then the remainder. So, I have double and triple checked and know that there cannot be any error. My total count of billionaires is 1424. The Forbes total count is 1426. Why the discrepancy of 2? I know it sounds ridiculous but mistakes are made. I have checked and checked but seems like there is no mistake in my count. (The Microsoft Excel program did the additions.) Are we missing a couple of smaller countries may be? Or, is there an error in the big countries listing?
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Would like to find out. Before I begin my analysis, I want to make sure that there are no errors in the count of the number of billionaires. Would appreciate your feedback. Thanks and regards. ***************************************************** Please see the Tables in the link given here what I am trying to do. A more comprehensive update is what I am planning with all 64 countries. http://www.scribd.com/doc/128610494/The-Forbes-Billionaires-and-Calculus-Is-Einstein-sWork-Function-Observed-Here
Note: The discrepancy of 2 arises because Switzerland is allotted 14 billionaires and Egypt is allotted 8 billionaires in the Infographic accompanying The Mapping of Wealth. I have checked this carefully after sorting by country. Only the names of 13 billionaires appear in the Swiss list (ranks 94, 123, 198, 219, 458, 458, 670, 704, 736, 736, 831, and 1342). And names of only 3 billionaires are found for Egypt (ranks 182, 589, 670, 736, 736, 785 and 1031). Author

Luisa Kroll, Forbes Staff 2 weeks ago

First off, thanks so much for spending so much time with the list. I love it and love the analysis. My guess: Guernsey and St. Kitts. Did you have those? Ill be posting full list of countries later today. Its just been a bit crazy around here. More later and thanks again.

Called-out comment

Vj Laxmanan 2 weeks ago

Thanks, look forward to it. I get total 1424 billionaires but Forbes says 1426. I checked and checked and checked. My count seems correct. Where are those 2 guys from? They are not in the list of 64 countries I see. Cheers!

Vj Laxmanan 1 week ago (as of March 23, 2013, 1:27 PM) Page | 32

Glad to see the new links here for billionaires from different regions. In fact, on Friday, I tried to go the local bookstores to get my copy of the Forbes billionaires issue and looks like it is not even in the stores yet. Anyway, I have just posted the following comparing the countries with the most billionaires (the number y) and the most billionaires per capita (the ratio y/x where x is the population). http://www.scribd.com/doc/129406030/Countries-with-Most-Billionaires-in-the-Forbes-2013Billionaires-List Guess, what? The mathematical analysis also shows that a minimum population is needed before a billionaire will appear. Hence, I would certainly like to investigate this phenomenon of the appearance of the first billionaire in several countries and also the historical growth of billionaries (with reliable estimates of the population). Now, I have a question. When did the first billionaire appear in the USA? I am assuming the first billionaire was from the US? Was it John D Rockefeller?

Vj Laxmanan 1 week ago

Now, I am also beginning to figure out the mystery of the 2 missing billionaires. When tabulated the billionaries and counted them, after sorting the Forbes list, I got 1424. Now, I see that no country of citizenship is given for one of the billionaires. There must be one more whose citizenship is not listed! Does it means these two guys do not pay any taxes as well? Or, they just refuse to tell even Ms. Luisa Kroll their citizenship status? Cheers! :)

Vj Laxmanan 1 week ago (as of March 23, 2013, 1:26 PM)

Glad the regional breakdown is available now. I find an interesting much too interesting difference between the data for Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, if we introduce population into the discussion. There is a lot of scatter in the Asia-Pacific data but this is absent in the European data. Take a look at Figures 1 and 2 in the document that I have just uploaded. Guess why? If I have perked your interest, you have to click on the link below and read on. http://www.scribd.com/doc/129634796/Europe-and-Asia-Pacific-Billionaires-in-the-2013Forbes-List-What-s-the-difference BTW, I have also used the map given here at the Forbes website as an eye catcher!

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Vj Laxmanan 1 week ago

Dear Ms. Luisa Kroll: I have just initiated today the analysis of the average wealth of billionaires in each country. The combined net worth of all the 442 US billionaires is given as $1.87 trillion and hence the average net worth can be determined. With countries with a small number of billionaires (up to 20 or so), I was able to do a country of citizenship sort and then find the combined and average net worth. However, for larger countries, this manual procedure is obviously cumbersome. Also, mistakes are possible. Hence, I would like your assistance to get the combined net worth and the average net worth figures for each country. From the distribution of the average net worth, it would be possible to develop a detailed understanding of the wealthy creation process. Look forward to your reply. Thanks and regards.

Vj Laxmanan 4 days ago (as of March 23, 2013, 1:25 PM)

I just uploaded the following about the average worth of US Forbes billionaire. http://www.scribd.com/doc/131005255/The-Recent-Growth-in-the-Average-Worth-of-USBillionaires-%E2%80%9909-%E2%80%9813-A-Curious-Limits-to-Growth-Revealed-Again For the busy folks, just take a look at Figure 1 and then Figure 2. The brief summary is as follows. The average net worth of US billionaires is shown here to increase as the number of billionaires counted (in a given year) increases. Unfortunately, only the limited amount of data for the years 2009 to 2013, compiled from various sources after a significant amount of searching on the Internet, can be considered here. The data on the combined net worth of all US billionaires (and likewise for other countries) is not readily available and is not being compiled annually at this time. The significance of the nonlinear increase in the average net worth of US billionaire (and likewise for all billionaires worldwide, reported earlier) is discussed here briefly. There is an asymptotic limiting value to the average net worth, about $10 billion. The business and policy implications of this finding must be investigated. P. S. Please note remarks about country-by-country net worth and the average net worth. It would be very helpful to compile this info as well with future Forbes lists. Just my humble suggestion. Thanks.

Vj Laxmanan 3 minutes ago (as of 1:20 PM on March 22, 2013)

Since I got interested in comparing the difference in the wealth distribution of billionaires in the Forbes and Hurun lists (for 2013), I had a chance to carefully check again why I get 1424
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billionaires as opposed to the Forbes total of 1426. The mystery is now resolvedand lets see why.. The Infographic here, accompanying Mapping of Wealth, gives the Swiss count as 14 billionaires and the Egypt count as 8 billionaires. I have checked this carefully after sorting by country once again just before posting this today. Only the names of 13 billionaires appear in the Swiss list (ranks 94, 123, 198, 219, 458, 458, 670, 704, 736, 736, 831, and 1342). And names of only 3 billionaires are found for Egypt (ranks 182, 589, 670, 736, 736, 785 and 1031). Thats the reason for the discrepancy. Anyway, my interest is in the study of the difference in the wealth distribution pattern. The amazing thing about the Hurun and Forbes 2013 lists is that roughly the same total wealth is being distributed differently between 62 countries in the Forbes list and between 56 countries in the Hurun list. The difference in wealth distribution tells something about the extent of chaos, or randomness, or what physicists (and even some information theorist and computer scientists) call ENTROPY in the same system. I have put forward the idea before that (mathematically speaking) money in economics is just like energy in physics. Now, we see that there is entropy in this system. This is how Planck develops quantum physics by talking about how the same total energy can be distributed between a set of N particles. The more the ways, the more the entropy. Now, we have here, empirical observations from two respected sources about two ways of distributing roughly the same total wealth among billionaires. Cheers! Please see the most recent document I just uploaded, if I have sparked your interest. http://www.scribd.com/doc/131830628/Wealth-Distribution-Between-the-2013-Forbes-and-theHurun-Rich-Lists

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Vj Laxmanan 3 days ago

Thank so much, Edwin Durgy, for making this data available. I have analyzed the data for the average net for the US billionaires, as a function of time (2009-2013) and also the average for the worldwide billionaires (from 2000-2013). The analysis is uploaded here http://www.scribd.com/doc/131005255/The-Recent-Growth-in-the-Average-Worth-ofUS-Billionaires-%E2%80%9909-%E2%80%9813-A-Curious-Limits-to-GrowthRevealed-Again Is there a way to get multi-year averages on a country by country basis, at least for the bigger countries? That would be also very useful to analyze. I am currently analyzing the 2013 averages here and will post it shortly. The reason Nigeria is on top of the list is simply because there are only two billionaires. I have included a short table for different
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countries, that I generated myself, before I found this article data with the averages for all countries. A study of this billionaire problem will also help us understand many other puzzling problems from business and the financial world. Thanks and look forward to some more multi-year data.

Vj Laxmanan 3 days ago

The following document, with a preliminary analysis of the average net worth data has just been uploaded and provides some explanation, IMO, about Nigerias top spot. http://www.scribd.com/doc/131193521/The-Average-Net-Worth-by-Country-Part-IPreliminary-Analysis-of-the-Forbes-2013-Billionaires-Data The average net worth of all the billionaires, worldwide, or in a single country, is the ratio U = y/x, where x is the number of billionaires in a country and y is their combined net worth. As the number of billionaires x increases, the average net worth y/x can either increase or decrease, depending on the numerical values of h and c in the remarkably simple relation y = hx + c, relating x and y This explains why Nigeria, with only two billionaires jumps to the top spot in the 2013 Forbes all country list sorted by average net worth of the billionaires.

Vj Laxmanan 3 days ago

I updated the document with a couple of new graphs. The link is given below. http://www.scribd.com/doc/131208984/The-Average-Net-Worth-by-Country-Part-IAnalysis-of-the-2013-Forbes-Billionaires-Data The previous link will not work anymore, since I was not able to upload a revision of same document and had to delete it.

Vj Laxmanan 8 hours ago (as of March 23, 2013, 1:20 PM)

I have just uploaded the following document comparing the average country-by-country net worth of the billionaires in the Forbes 2013 Billionaires list the Hurun 2013 Rich List; see brief summary posted below.

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http://www.scribd.com/doc/131764299/Average-Net-Worth-of-Billionaires-by-CountryThe-2013-Hurun-Rich-List The 2013 Hurun Rich list provides the net worth data for 1453 billionaires, spread over 56 countries. The Forbes 2013 Billionaires list, on the other hand, provides the net worth data for 1426 billionaires spread over 64 countries. The combined net worth for all N billionaires in a single country and their average net worth is presented here in a tabular format, with a brief comparison of the two rich lists. Mexico now heads the list of countries (it was No. 2 in the Forbes list) when we compare the average billionaire worth. Also, interestingly, Nigeria, which had the top spot in the Forbes list, now ranks No. 12. Nigeria has four billionaires instead of two with a combined net worth which slightly higher but the average drops since now we have to divide by four instead of two. As far as the methodology used to determine these numbers I leave that to the experts. I was just having some fun with analysis of this data. To extent I know, this may be first comparison of the two lists. Another article comparing the distribution of wealth between countries is in preparation.

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About the author V. Laxmanan, Sc. D.

The author obtained his Bachelors degree (B. E.) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Poona and his Masters degree (M. E.), also in Mechanical Engineering, from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, followed by a Masters (S. M.) and Doctoral (Sc. D.) degrees in Materials Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA. He then spent his entire professional career at leading US research institutions (MIT, Allied Chemical Corporate R & D, now part of Honeywell, NASA, Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), and General Motors Research and Development Center in Warren, MI). He holds four patents in materials processing, has co-authored two books and published several scientific papers in leading peer-reviewed international journals. His expertise includes developing simple mathematical models to explain the behavior of complex systems. While at NASA and CWRU, he was responsible for developing material processing experiments to be performed aboard the space shuttle and developed a simple mathematical model to explain the growth Christmas-tree, or snowflake, like structures (called dendrites) widely observed in many types of liquid-to-solid phase transformations (e.g., freezing of all commercial metals and alloys, freezing of water, and, yes, production of snowflakes!). This led to a simple model to explain the growth of dendritic structures in both the groundbased experiments and in the space shuttle experiments. More recently, he has been interested in the analysis of the large volumes of data from financial and economic systems and has developed what may be called the Quantum Business Model (QBM). This extends (to financial and economic systems) the mathematical arguments used by Max Planck to develop quantum physics using the analogy Energy = Money, i.e., energy in physics is like money in economics. Einstein applied Plancks ideas to describe the photoelectric effect (by treating light as being composed of particles called photons, each with the fixed quantum of energy conceived by Planck). The mathematical law deduced by Planck, referred to here as the generalized power-exponential law, might
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actually have many applications far beyond blackbody radiation studies where it was first conceived. Einsteins photoelectric law is a simple linear law and was deduced from Plancks non-linear law for describing blackbody radiation. It appears that financial and economic systems can be modeled using a similar approach. Finance, business, economics and management sciences now essentially seem to operate like astronomy and physics before the advent of Kepler and Newton. Finally, during my professional career, I also twice had the opportunity and great honor to make presentations to two Nobel laureates: first at NASA to Prof. Robert Schrieffer (1972 Physics Nobel Prize), who was the Chairman of the Schrieffer Committee appointed to review NASAs space flight experiments (following the loss of the space shuttle Challenger on January 28, 1986) and second at GM Research Labs to Prof. Robert Solow (1987 Nobel Prize in economics), who was Chairman of Corporate Research Review Committee, appointed by GM corporate management.

Cover page of AirTran 2000 Annual Report

Can you see that plane flying above the tall tree tops that make a nearly perfect circle? It requires a great deal of imagination to see and to photograph it.

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