Zipf's law in urban geography suggests that city size is inversely proportional to its rank. What does this imply about the largest city relative to the second-largest?

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Multiple Choice

Zipf's law in urban geography suggests that city size is inversely proportional to its rank. What does this imply about the largest city relative to the second-largest?

Explanation:
Zipf's law says city size is inversely proportional to its rank, so the sizes follow S(r) ≈ k/r. For the top two ranks, S1 ≈ k and S2 ≈ k/2. The ratio S1 to S2 is about (k) / (k/2) = 2, meaning the largest city is roughly twice as large as the second-largest. For example, if the second-largest has 8 million people, the largest would be around 16 million. This is an approximation, but the two-to-one relationship is the expected pattern.

Zipf's law says city size is inversely proportional to its rank, so the sizes follow S(r) ≈ k/r. For the top two ranks, S1 ≈ k and S2 ≈ k/2. The ratio S1 to S2 is about (k) / (k/2) = 2, meaning the largest city is roughly twice as large as the second-largest. For example, if the second-largest has 8 million people, the largest would be around 16 million. This is an approximation, but the two-to-one relationship is the expected pattern.

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