Jump to content

Erdős–Bacon number: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
m sigh. Restored with ref.
rm tag, no longer needed
(23 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
A person's '''Erdős–Bacon number''' is a concept which reflects the [[small world phenomenon]] in academia and entertainment. It is the sum of a person's [[Erdős number]] and their [[Bacon number]]. The Erdős number is a measure of the "collaborative distance" in authoring mathematical papers between that person and Hungarian mathematician [[Paul Erdős]], and the [[Bacon number]] represents the number of links, through roles in films, by which the person is separated from American actor [[Kevin Bacon]]. Therefore, to have a defined Erdős–Bacon number, it is necessary for one to have both appeared in a film and co-authored an academic paper. The lower the number, the closer an individual is to Erdős and Bacon.
{{Original research|date=May 2009}}
A person's '''Erdős–Bacon number''' is a concept which reflects the [[small world phenomenon]] in academia and entertainment. It is the sum of one's [[Erdős number]]—which measures the "collaborative distance" in authoring mathematical papers between that individual and Hungarian mathematician [[Paul Erdős]]—and one's [[Bacon number]]—which represents the number of links, through roles in films, by which the individual is separated from American actor [[Kevin Bacon]]. The lower the number, the closer an individual is to Erdős and Bacon.


The idea of Erdős–Bacon numbers has been written about by [[Simon Singh]] in the [[United Kingdom|British]] media<ref name="BBC">{{cite web
These numbers are generally allowed to be more flexible for Erdős–Bacon number calculation, as few published academics have also been professional actors. For example, roles as self, as a [[cameo appearance]], or as an [[extra (actor)|extra]] are often included for the Bacon component. The Erdős criterion technically refers to collaboration on mathematical papers, but it is often relaxed to include general research articles for the Erdős–Bacon number.<ref>[http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/life/20070814/bl_cover14_side.art.htm "There's not much separating her from Bacon, Erdos"], [[USA Today]], August 14, 2007</ref> In general, to have a defined Erdős–Bacon number, it is necessary (but not sufficient) for one to have both appeared in a film and co-authored an academic paper.

The idea of Erdős–Bacon numbers has been popularized by [[Simon Singh]] in the [[United Kingdom|British]] media<ref name="BBC">{{cite web
| url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/further5.shtml
| url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/further5.shtml
| author = Simon Singh
| author = Simon Singh
Line 35: Line 32:
| year = 2004
| year = 2004
| publisher = ''[[Boing Boing]]''
| publisher = ''[[Boing Boing]]''
}}</ref> in the [[blogosphere]]. However, the idea had appeared in print before, notably in 1998, when it was mentioned in response to [[Daniel Kleitman]] appearing in ''[[Good Will Hunting]]''.<ref>Diane Nelson, [http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_text_direct-0=0F1D5751557BEA90&p_field_direct-0=document_id EVERYONE'S JUST A FACTOR OF SIX APART], June 14, 1998, [[The Modesto Bee]]: "Add the two and you have a guy like Dan Kleitman with a combined Erdos-Bacon ... a paper with Erdos and appeared in "Good Will Hunting" with Minnie Driver, ..."</ref>
}}</ref> in the [[blogosphere]]. However, the idea had appeared in print before, at least as early as 1998, when it was mentioned about [[Daniel Kleitman]] appearing in ''[[Good Will Hunting]]''.<ref>Diane Nelson, [http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_text_direct-0=0F1D5751557BEA90&p_field_direct-0=document_id EVERYONE'S JUST A FACTOR OF SIX APART], June 14, 1998, [[The Modesto Bee]]: "Add the two and you have a guy like Dan Kleitman with a combined Erdos-Bacon ... a paper with Erdos and appeared in "Good Will Hunting" with Minnie Driver, ..."</ref>

Notable scientists with defined Erdős–Bacon numbers include popular [[string theory|string theorist]] [[Brian Greene]], who has an Erdős–Bacon number of 5, [[astronomer]] [[Carl Sagan]] and [[theoretical physicist]] [[Stephen Hawking]]; one of the best-known actors with a number is Israeli-U.S. actress [[Natalie Portman]] of ''[[Star Wars]]'' prequel trilogy fame, whose authorship of a psychology paper during her Harvard degree in psychology earned her an Erdős–Bacon number of 6.

==Methodology==

Erdős himself may have an Erdős–Bacon number of 3, 4, or 6. Erdős' Erdős number is 0 by definition, and his Bacon number is currently 4 according to data from the [[Internet Movie Database]].<ref>{{cite web
| url = http://oracleofbacon.org/cgi-bin/oracle/movielinks?game=0&firstname=Kevin+Bacon&secondname=Paul+Erdos&start_year=1850&end_year=2007&dir=0&using=1&use_genres=1&g0=on&g4=on&g8=on&g16=on&g20=on&g1=on&g5=on&g9=on&g13=on&g17=on&g21=on&g25=on&g2=on&g6=on&g10=on&g14=on&g22=on&g26=on&g3=on&g7=on&g11=on&g15=on&g23=on&g27=on
| title = The Oracle of Bacon at Virginia
| accessdate = 2008-04-02
}}</ref> However, one of the links is disputed on the Erdős Number Project website.<ref>{{cite web
| url = http://www.oakland.edu/enp/related.html
| title = Items of Interest Related to Erdös Numbers
| accessdate = 2008-04-04
}}</ref> Without this link, his Bacon number rises to 6.<ref>According to IMDB, Paul Erdős was in ''N is a Number'' with Anne Davenport, who was in ''Amartolo Trio'' with Charles Stewart, who was in ''Schalken the Painter'' with [[Jeremy Clyde]], who was in ''[[The Musketeer]]'' with [[Tim Roth]], who was in ''[[Don't Come Knocking]]'' with [[Tim Matheson]], who was in ''[[Animal House]]'' with Kevin Bacon.</ref> Also, [[Sir Alec Guinness]] appears in [[N is a Number]] with Erdős. Although Guinness' name is not in the credits, this gives Erdős a Bacon-Erdős number of 3.<ref>Guinness (identified by name by the narrator) and Erdős appear together at the beginning of the film, receiving honorary doctorates at the University of Cambridge in 1991.{{cite web
| url =
http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0265%2FO.VIII%2017%2F21
| title = Janus: Records relating to the administrative and academic officers of the University
| accessdate = 2008-06-26}} Guinness has a Bacon number of 2; he was in ''Kafka'' (1991) with Theresa Russell, who was in ''Wild Things'' (1998) with Kevin Bacon.{{cite web
| url =
http://oracleofbacon.org/cgi-bin/oracle/movielinks?game=1&secondname=alec+guinness
| title = The Oracle of Bacon at Virginia
| accessdate = 2008-06-26}}
</ref>

[[Daniel Kleitman]], a mathematician at MIT, was an advisor for the movie ''[[Good Will Hunting]]'' and appeared briefly as an uncredited extra. [[Minnie Driver]], who appeared in that movie, also appeared in ''[[Sleepers (film)|Sleepers]]'' with Kevin Bacon; as such, Kleitman's Bacon number is 2. He also coauthored a paper with Erdős. This gives him an Erdős–Bacon number of 3.{{Citation needed|date=May 2009}}

The only ways a lower number could be achieved would be:
* for an individual who had co-authored an academic paper with Paul Erdős to appear in a movie with Kevin Bacon;
* for Bacon to co-author an academic paper with someone with an Erdős number of 1, which would give Bacon an Erdős–Bacon number of 2;
* for anyone who appeared in the documentary ''N is a Number'' along with Erdős to appear in a film with Bacon, which would posthumously give Erdős an Erdős–Bacon number of 2;
* for Kevin Bacon to appear in a film that also uses stock footage of Erdős, giving Erdős an Erdős–Bacon number of 1;
* for a heretofore unknown joint academic paper by Bacon and Erdős to be published, giving Bacon an Erdős–Bacon number of 1.

==Scientists==
For a time, the person with the lowest known Erdős–Bacon number was [[Brian Greene]]. He appeared in ''[[Frequency (film)|Frequency]]'' with [[John Di Benedetto]], who was in ''[[Sleepers (film)|Sleepers]]'' with [[Kevin Bacon]], for a Bacon number of 2. He also wrote a paper with [[Shing-Tung Yau]], who wrote a paper with [[Ronald Graham]], who wrote a paper with [[Paul Erdős]], for an Erdős number of 3 and a combined Erdős–Bacon number of 5. Greene was later outdone by [[Dave Bayer]], mathematical consultant to ''[[A Beautiful Mind (film)|A Beautiful Mind]]'' who received a minor role on screen in the movie. [[Rance Howard]] was also in ''[[A Beautiful Mind (film)|A Beautiful Mind]]'' and in ''[[Apollo 13 (film)|Apollo 13]]'' with Kevin Bacon to give Bayer a Bacon number of 2. Bayer wrote a paper with [[Persi Diaconis]], who has an Erdős number of 1 due to a jointly authored 1977 [[Stanford University]] [[technical report]], later published in a 2004 compilation.<ref name="DiEr">Persi Diaconis and Paul Erdős. On the distribution of the [[greatest common divisor]]. Technical report 252. Stanford University. Dept. of Statistics. October 10, 1977. Also issued as Department of Statistics technical report no. 12 under ARO Grant DAAG29-77-G-0031. Republished; see [http://www.imstat.org/publications/books/lnms45.pdf].</ref> As such, Bayer's Erdős–Bacon number is 4. Diaconis himself has an Erdős–Bacon number of 5, and Bacon number of 4. He was in the documentary The Math Life<ref>[http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~rockmore/mathlife.html The Math Life]</ref> with [[Freeman Dyson]], who was in A Glorious Accident<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107018/ A Glorious Accident]</ref> with [[Oliver Sacks]]. Sacks has a Kevin Bacon number of 2.<ref>[http://oracleofbacon.org/cgi-bin/oracle/movielinks?firstname=Bacon%2C+Kevin&game=1&secondname=oliver+sacks Oliver Sacks's Kevin Bacon connection]</ref>

[[Astronomer]] [[Carl Sagan]] has an Erdős number of 6<ref name="Erdos">{{cite web
| url = http://www.oakland.edu/enp/erdpaths.html
| title = The Erdős Number Project, Paths to Erdős
| accessdate = 2006-12-01
}}</ref> and a Bacon number of 3,<ref name="BaconWelles">{{cite web
| url = http://oracleofbacon.org/cgi-bin/oracle/movielinks?firstname=Bacon%2C+Kevin&game=1&secondname=Orson+Welles
| title = The Oracle of Bacon at Virginia
| accessdate = 2007-05-20
}}</ref><ref name="Sagan">{{cite web
| url = http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073898/fullcredits
| title = IMDb: ''Who's Out There?''
| accessdate = 2007-05-20
}}</ref> for a total of 9. [[Physicist]] [[Richard Feynman]] has an Erdős number of 3<ref name="Erdos"/> and a Bacon number of 3.<ref name="BaconFeynman">{{cite web
| url = http://oracleofbacon.org/cgi-bin/oracle/movielinks?firstname=Bacon%2C+Kevin&game=1&secondname=Richard+Feynman
| title = The Oracle of Bacon at Virginia
| accessdate = 2006-12-05
}}</ref> [[Physicist]] [[H. David Politzer]] has an Erdős number of 4 <ref name="Erdos"/> and a Bacon number of 2.
<ref name="BaconPolitzer">{{cite web
| url = http://oracleofbacon.org/cgi-bin/movielinks?game=0&a=Kevin%20Bacon&b=David+Politzer+(I)&use_using=1&u0=on&start_year=1850&end_year=2050&dir=0&use_genres=1&g0=on&g4=on&g8=on&g16=on&g20=on&g1=on&g5=on&g9=on&g13=on&g17=on&g21=on&g25=on&g2=on&g6=on&g10=on&g14=on&g22=on&g26=on&g3=on&g11=on&g15=on&g23=on&g27=on
| title = The Oracle of Bacon at Virginia
| accessdate = 2009-06-23
}}</ref> [[Theoretical physicist]] [[Stephen Hawking]] has an Erdős number of 4<ref name="Erdos"/> and, if one can include any of his television guest roles as himself in ''[[The Simpsons]]'', ''[[Futurama]]'', and ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'', a Bacon number of 3. The mathematician Alex Schuster, a professor at San Francisco State University, has an Erdős number of 3. He also appeared in a single episode of the late 1980s Canadian television program ENG as an ice cream salesman. The show starred [[Victor Garber]], who has a Bacon number of 2. Schuster thus has a Bacon number of 3 and an Erdős–Bacon number of 6.

Astrophysicist and cosmologist Ravi Sheth at the University of Pennsylvania also has an Erdős–Bacon number of at most 6. His Erdős number of 3 comes through a paper with [[Max Tegmark]]<ref>{{cite journal| journal=Physical Review D| doi=10.1103/PhysRevD.74.123507| title=Cosmological constraints from the SDSS luminous red galaxies| first=M.| last= Tegmark| coauthors=et al. | url= http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2006PhRvD..74l3507T | accessdate=2008-06-13| year=2006| volume=74| pages=123507}}</ref>, who wrote a paper with his father, [[Harold S. Shapiro]]<ref>{{cite journal| journal=Physical Review D| doi=10.1103/PhysRevE.50.2538| title=Decoherence produces coherent states: An explicit proof for harmonic chains| first=M.| last= Tegmark| coauthors=Shapiro | url= http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1994PhRvE..50.2538T| accessdate=2008-06-13| year=1994| volume=50 | pages=2538}}</ref>, who wrote a paper with Erdős<ref>{{cite journal | journal = Michigan Math. J. | first = P. | last = Erdős | coauthors = Shapiro, H. S.; Shields, A. L. | title=Large and small subspaces of Hilbert space. | year=1965| volume=12 |pages=169 | doi=10.1307/mmj/1028999306}}</ref>. He acquired a Bacon number of 3 by starring in the title role of the 1984 British TV film [[Kim (TV film)|Kim]], which also starred [[Peter O'Toole]], who has a Bacon number of 2.<ref>{{cite web
| url = http://oracleofbacon.org/cgi-bin/oracle/movielinks?firstname=Bacon,%20Kevin&game=1&secondname=O'Toole,+Peter+(I)
| title = UVA Computer Science: The Oracle of Bacon at Virginia
| publisher = UVA Computer Science | accessdate = 2008-06-13}}</ref> Karl Schaffer is a dancer/choreographer who appeared as a "Killer Klown" in the 1988 film ''[[Killer Klowns from Outer Space]]'',<ref>{{cite web
| url = http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095444/fullcredits#cast
| title = Full cast and crew for Killer Klowns from Outer Space
| publisher = [[Internet Movie Database]]
| accessdate = 2007-05-21
}} Schaffer's name is misspelled in the credits as "Karl Shaeffer".</ref> and is also a mathematician at [[De Anza College]], with a Bacon number of 2<ref>Schaffer was in ''[[Killer Klowns from Outer Space]]'' (1988) with Danny Kovacs. Danny Kovacs was in ''[[Murder in the First]]'' (1995) with Kevin Bacon. {{cite web
| url = http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113870/fullcredits#cast
| title = Full cast and crew for Murder in the First
| publisher = [[Internet Movie Database]]
| accessdate = 2007-05-23
}}</ref> and an Erdős number of 3,<ref>In 2001, Schaffer wrote a joint paper with Sin-Min Lee, who has an Erdős number of 2.{{cite web
| url = http://www.oakland.edu/enp/Erdos2
| title = Erdos2, Version 2007
| publisher = The Erdos Number Project
| date = [[2007-02-28]]
| accessdate = 2007-05-23
}}</ref> for a sum of 5.

Mathematics professor Laura DeMarco at UIC has an Erdős number of 3 (through Rumely and [[Carl Pomerance|Pomerance]])
<ref name="MRCollaborationDistance2">{{cite web
| url = http://www.ams.org/mathscinet/freeTools.html
| title = MR: Collaboration Distance
| publisher = American Mathematical Society
| accessdate = 2008-06-06
}}</ref>
and appeared briefly in ''Proof'' with [[Gwyneth Paltrow]]
<ref name="Proof">{{cite web
| url = "http://www.terra.es/cine/laverdadoculta/notas.pdf"
| title = Proof" (La verdad oculta [Proof])
| accessdate = 2008-06-06
}}</ref>
which gives her a Bacon number of 3 (through [[Kelly Preston]])
<ref name="Paltrow">{{cite web
| url = http://oracleofbacon.org/cgi-bin/oracle/movielinks?firstname=Bacon%2C+Kevin&game=1&secondname=Gwyneth+Paltrow
| title = The Oracle of Bacon at Virginia
| accessdate = 2006-06-06
}}</ref>
and hence an Erdős–Bacon number of 6. The documentary ''[[Julia Robinson and Hilbert's Tenth Problem]]'',<ref name="JRandH10">{{cite web
| url = http://www.zalafilms.com/films/jrparticipants.html
| title = Zala Films: Julia Robinson and Hilbert's Tenth Problem
| publisher = Zala Films
| accessdate = 2008-02-12
}}</ref> with actress [[Danica McKellar]] as narrator,
gave a Bacon number of 3 to several mathematicians appearing in the film as themselves, including
[[Lenore Blum]] (4+3=7), [[Martin Davis]] (3+3=6), [[Jan Denef]] (3+3=6), [[Kirsten Eisenträger]] (2+3=5), [[Solomon Feferman]] (3+3=6), [[Steven Givant]] (2+3=5), [[Yuri Matiyasevich]] (2+3=5), [[Bjorn Poonen]] (2+3=5), [[Hilary Putnam]] (3+3=6), [[Dana Scott]] (2+3=5), and [[Alexandra Shlapentokh]] (2+3=5).<ref name="MRCollaborationDistance">{{cite web
| url = http://www.ams.org/mathscinet/freeTools.html
| title = MR: Collaboration Distance
| publisher = American Mathematical Society
| accessdate = 2008-02-12
}}</ref>

==Actors==
In the acting world, [[Danica McKellar]], most famous for her role as [[Winnie Cooper]] in ''[[The Wonder Years]]'', has an Erdős–Bacon number of 6, having coauthored a [[mathematics]] paper published while an undergraduate at [[UCLA]]. Her paper gives her an Erdős number of 4,<ref name="ChayesMcKellar">L Chayes, D McKellar, B Winn, "Percolation and Gibbs states multiplicity for ferromagnetic Ashkin–Teller models on Z 2," J. Phys. A: Math. Gen, 1998.</ref><ref name="ChayesKotecky">JT Chayes, L Chayes, R Kotecký, "The analysis of the Widom-Rowlinson model by stochastic geometric methods," Communications in Mathematical Physics, 1995.</ref><ref name="KoteckyPreiss">R Kotecký, D Preiss, "Cluster expansion for abstract polymer models," Communications in Mathematical Physics, 1986.</ref><ref name="Erdos1">{{cite web
| url = http://www.oakland.edu/enp/Erdos1
| title = The Erdős Number Project, Erdos1
| accessdate = 2006-12-20
}}</ref> and a Bacon number of 2, both of them having worked with [[Margaret Easley]]. Former NCAA gymnastics champion [[Kiralee Hayashi]]<ref name="Kira">{{cite web|url=http://www.kiraleeh.com/|title=Kiralee Hayashi's website}}</ref> may be the professional actress with the lowest Erdős number (3), having co-written a peer-reviewed mathematics paper on Riemannian manifolds with Fields medalist [[Shing-Tung Yau]],<ref name="Yau">{{cite web|url=http://www.loni.ucla.edu/~thompson/ERDOS/erdo.htm|title=Paul Thompson's Erdos Number Page}}</ref> and having a Bacon number of 2,<ref name="OracB"> [http://oracleofbacon.org/cgi-bin/oracle/movielinks?firstname=Bacon%2C+Kevin&game=1&secondname=Kiralee+Hayashi" Kiralee Hayashi at the Oracle of Bacon]</ref> giving her an Erdős–Bacon number of 5.<ref name="Yau">[http://www.loni.ucla.edu/~thompson/ERDOS/erdo.htm Erdos Number Page<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

US actress [[Natalie Portman]] has an Erdős–Bacon number of 6. She collaborated (using her birth name, Natalie Hershlag) with Abigail A. Baird,<ref name="lobe">{{cite journal |author=Baird AA, Kagan J, Gaudette T, Walz KA, Hershlag N, Boas DA |title=Frontal lobe activation during object permanence: data from near-infrared spectroscopy |journal=Neuroimage |volume=16 |issue=4 |pages=1120–5 |year=2002 |month=Aug |pmid=12202098 |doi=0.1006/nimg.2002.1170 |url=http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1053811902911705}}</ref> who has a collaboration path<ref name=reduction>{{cite journal |author=Baird AA, Colvin MK, Vanhorn JD, Inati S, Gazzaniga MS |title=Functional connectivity: integrating behavioral, diffusion tensor imaging, and functional magnetic resonance imaging data sets |journal=J Cogn Neurosci |volume=17 |issue=4 |pages=687–93 |year=2005 |month=Apr |pmid=15829087 |doi=10.1162/0898929053467569 }}</ref><ref name="parallel">Victor, J.D., Maiese, K., Shapley, R., Sidtis, J., and Gazzaniga, M.S. (1989) Acquired central dyschromatopsia: analysis of a case with preservation of color discrimination. Clinical Vision Sciences 4, 183-196.
[http://www-users.med.cornell.edu/~jdvicto/vimash89.html]</ref><ref name="2D">Azor, R., Gillis, J., and Victor, J.D. (1982) Combinatorial applications of Hermite polynomials. SIAM Journal on Mathematical Analysis 13, 879-890.
[http://www-users.med.cornell.edu/~jdvicto/erdos.html]</ref> leading to [[Joseph Gillis]], who has an Erdős number of 1.<ref name="logic">P. Erdos and J. Gillis, "Note on the transfinite diameter," J. Lond. Math. Soc. 12 185 (1937).</ref> Bacon and Portman both appear in [[New York, I Love You]], giving Portman a Bacon number of 1 and an Erdős number of 5. [[Mayim Bialik]] also has an Erdős–Bacon number of at most 7, having worked on a book chapter<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=fROW4vqDGvEC&printsec=toc&dq=zaidel+bialik book chapter]</ref> and having a 5 point Erdős path <ref>{{cite journal |author=Luders E, Narr KL, Zaidel E, Thompson PM, Toga AW |title=Gender effects on callosal thickness in scaled and unscaled space |journal=Neuroreport |volume=17 |issue=11 |pages=1103–6 |year=2006 |month=Jul |pmid=16837835 |doi=10.1097/01.wnr.0000227987.77304.cc }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=Wang Y, Gu X, Hayashi KM, Chan TF, Thompson PM, Yau ST |title=Brain surface parameterization using Riemann surface structure |journal=Med Image Comput Comput Assist Interv Int Conf Med Image Comput Comput Assist Interv |volume=8 |issue=Pt 2 |pages=657–65 |year=2005 |pmid=16686016}}</ref> connecting to [[Shing-Tung Yau]]. Her Bacon number is 2.<ref> [http://oracleofbacon.org/cgi-bin/oracle/movielinks?firstname=Bacon%2C+Kevin&game=1&secondname=mayim+bialik] Mayim Bialik at the Oracle of Bacon</ref>

The movie ''[[What the Bleep Do We Know!?]]'', which featured both persons published in the sciences and an actress with Bacon number 2 ([[Academy Award]] winner [[Marlee Matlin]]), gave Erdős–Bacon numbers to [[David Albert]] (Erdős 4,<ref name="Erdos1"/><ref name="AhAl">Y Aharonov, DZ Albert, L Vaidman, "How the result of a measurement of a component of the spin of a spin-1/2 particle can turn out to be 100," Physical Review Letters, 1988.</ref><ref name="AhBe">Y Aharonov, PG Bergmann, JL Lebowitz, "Time symmetry in the quantum process of measurement," Phys. Rev, 1964. </ref><ref name="BeSt">B Hoffmann, V Bargmann, PG Bergmann, EG Straus, "Working with Einstein" in ''Some strangeness in the proportion : a centennial symposium to celebrate the achievements of [[Albert Einstein]]'', 1980.</ref> Erdős–Bacon 7), [[Fred Alan Wolf]] (Erdős 5, Erdős–Bacon 8), and [[Natural Law Party]] [[President of the United States|Presidential]] Candidate [[John Hagelin]] (Erdős 5 through frequent collaborator [[Dimitri Nanopoulos]], Erdős–Bacon 8), all appearing as themselves.

===Others===
[[Hank Aaron]], a [[baseball]] player, is sometimes also considered to have an Erdős–Bacon number of 3, as he and Erdős both autographed the same baseball (for which he is jokingly referred to as having Erdős number of 1),<ref name="Aaron">{{cite web
| url = http://www.oakland.edu/enp/related.html
| title = The Erdős Number Project, Items of Interest Related to Erdös Numbers,
| accessdate = 2006-12-20
}}</ref> and he also appeared in ''[[Summer Catch]]'' with [[Susan Gardner]], who was in ''[[In The Cut]]'' with Bacon. [[Charles Seife]], an author and journalist, co-authored a paper with Frank Moss (Erdős number 3) and appeared in a Discovery Channel special with Brian Greene (Bacon number 2) for an Erdős–Bacon number of 7.

== Table==

For people listed in the [[Internet Movie Database]] that are connected to Kevin Bacon, the average Bacon number is 2.957.<ref>[http://oracleofbacon.org/cgi-bin/oracle/center-cgi?who=Kevin+Bacon UVA Computer Science: The Oracle of Bacon at Virginia<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> For mathematicians listed in the American Mathematical Society's [http://www.ams.org/mathscinet/collaborationDistance.html MR Collaboration Distance search engine] that are connected to Erdős, the average Erdős number is 4.65.<ref>[http://www.oakland.edu/enp/trivia.html Erdős number facts<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> There currently exists no exhaustive list of people with defined Erdős–Bacon numbers, but a select group is listed below.

<!-- NOTE: This list, like the rest of Wikipedia, should be verifiable. Please include supporting documentation in the table or in the above text for new additions. Unsourced "Drive-by" additions will be immediately commented out and/or deleted. Poorly sourced older instances should eventually be well-sourced, too. -->
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! style="background: #efefef;" | Name
| Erdős number
| Bacon number
| Erdős–Bacon number
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|David|Albert}}
| 4<ref name="Erdos1"/><ref name="AhAl"/><ref name="AhBe"/><ref name="BeSt"/>
| 3<sup>(b)</sup>
| 7<sup>(b)</sup>
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|Dave|Bayer}}
| 2<sup>(c)</sup>
| 2<sup>(d)</sup>
| 4<sup>(c,d)</sup>
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|Patrick|Billingsley}}
| 4<ref>Baum, Leonard E.; Billingsley, Patrick. Asymptotic distributions for the coupon collector's problem. Ann. Math. Statist. 36 1965 1835–9</ref><ref>Baum, Leonard E.; Herzberg, Norman P.; Lomonaco, S. J., Jr.; Sweet, Melvin M. Fields of almost periodic sequences. J. Combinatorial Theory Ser. A 22 (1977), no. 2, 169–80.</ref><ref>Conway, J. H.; Lomonaco, S. J., Jr.; Sloane, N. J. A. A $[45,13]$ code with minimal distance $16$. Discrete Math. 83 (1990), no. 2-3, 213–7.</ref><ref>Conway, J. H.; Croft, H. T.; Erdös, P.; Guy, M. J. T. On the distribution of values of angles determined by coplanar points. J. London Math. Soc. (2) 19 (1979), no. 1, 137–43.</ref>
| 2<ref>[http://oracleofbacon.org/cgi-bin/oracle/movielinks?firstname=Bacon%2C+Kevin&game=1&secondname=Pat+Billingsley Pat Billingsley at the Oracle of Bacon]</ref>
| 6
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|Lenore|Blum}}
| 4<sup></sup>
| 3<sup>(b)</sup>
| 7<sup>(b)</sup>
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|Martin|Davis}}
| 3<sup></sup>
| 3<sup>(b)</sup>
| 6<sup>(b)</sup>
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|Laura|DeMarco}}
| 3<sup></sup>
| 3<sup>(d)</sup>
| 6<sup>(d)</sup>
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|Jan|Denef}}
| 3<sup></sup>
| 3<sup>(b)</sup>
| 6<sup>(b)</sup>
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|Persi|Diaconis}}
| 1<sup>(c)</sup>
| 4<sup>(b,e)</sup>
| 5<sup>(b,c,e)</sup>
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|Kirsten|Eisenträger}}
| 2<sup></sup>
| 3<sup>(b)</sup>
| 5<sup>(b)</sup>
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|Paul|Erdős}}
| 0
| 4<sup>(e)</sup>
| 4<sup>(e)</sup>
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|Solomon|Feferman}}
| 3<sup></sup>
| 3<sup>(b)</sup>
| 6<sup>(b)</sup>
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|Richard|Feynman}}
| 3<ref name="Erdos"/>
| 3<ref name="BaconFeynman"/>
| 6
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|Steven|Givant}}
| 2<sup></sup>
| 3<sup>(b)</sup>
| 5<sup>(b)</sup>
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|Brian|Greene}}
| 3
| 2<sup>(b)</sup>
| 5<sup>(b)</sup>
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|John|Hagelin}}
| 5
| 3<sup>(b)</sup>
| 8<sup>(b)</sup>
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|Stephen|Hawking}}
| 4<ref name="Erdos"/>
| 3<sup>(f)</sup>
| 7<sup>(f)</sup>
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|Kiralee|Hayashi}}<ref name="Kira"/>
| 3<ref name="Yau"/>
| 2<ref name="OracB"/>
| 5
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|Daniel|Kleitman}}
| 1
| 2<sup>(d)</sup>
| 3<sup>(d)</sup>
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|Yuri|Matiyasevich}}
| 2<sup></sup>
| 3<sup>(b)</sup>
| 5<sup>(b)</sup>
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|Danica|McKellar}}
| 4<ref name="ChayesMcKellar"/><ref name="ChayesKotecky"/><ref name="KoteckyPreiss"/><ref name="Erdos1"/>
| 2
| 6
<!--
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|P.Z.|Myers}}
| 4
| 2
| 6
-->
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|Geoffrey|Nunberg}}
| 4<ref name="Nunberg">{{cite web
| url = http://www.ischool.berkeley.edu/~nunberg/bag.html
| author = Geoffrey Nunberg
| title = Publications
| accessdate = 2008-01-29
}}
</ref>
| 3<sup>(b)</sup><ref name="Nunberg"/>
| 7<sup>(b)</sup>
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|Barney|Pell}}
| 3
| 2
| 5
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|John|Platt}}
| 3
| 3<sup>(i)</sup>
| 6<sup>(i)</sup>
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|Bjorn|Poonen}}
| 2<sup></sup>
| 3<sup>(b)</sup>
| 5<sup>(b)</sup>
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|Natalie|Portman}} (Hershlag)
| 5<ref name="lobe"/><ref name="reduction"/><ref name="parallel"/><ref name="2D"/><ref name="logic"/>
| 1
| 6
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|Hilary|Putnam}}
| 3<sup></sup>
| 3<sup>(b)</sup>
| 6<sup>(b)</sup>
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|Bertrand|Russell}}
| 3<sup>(g)</sup><ref name="Erdos"/>
| 3<sup>(b,h)</sup>
| 6<sup>(g,b,h)</sup>
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|Carl|Sagan}}
| 6<ref name="Erdos"/>
| 3<sup>(b)</sup><ref name="BaconWelles"/><ref name="Sagan"/>
| 9
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|Karl|Schaffer}}
| 3
| 2
| 5
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|Dana|Scott}}
| 2<sup></sup>
| 3<sup>(b)</sup>
| 5<sup>(b)</sup>
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|Charles|Seife}}
| 4 <ref>[http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v78/i6/p1186_1 Phys. Rev. Lett. 78 (1997): Enrico Simonotto, Massimo Riani, Charles Seife, Mark Roberts, Jennifer Twitty, and Frank Moss - Visual Perception of Stochastic<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
<ref>{{cite journal |author=Gilmore R, Pei X, Moss F |title=Topological analysis of chaos in neural spike train bursts |journal=Chaos |volume=9 |issue=3 |pages=812–7 |year=1999 |doi=10.1063/1.166455 |url=http://www.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=1713088}}</ref>
<ref>{{cite journal |author=Andresen B, Berry RS, Gilmore R, Ihrig E, Salamon P (1988), no. 3, 845–8 |title=Thermodynamic geometry and the metrics of Weinhold and Gilmore |journal=Phys Rev. A |volume=37 |issue=3 |pages=845–8 |year=1988 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevA.37.845 |url=http://www.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=927222}}</ref>
<ref>{{cite journal |author=Salamon P, Erdős P |title=The solution to a problem of Grünbaum |journal=Canad Math Bull. |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=129–38 |year=1988 |doi= |url=http://www.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=942062}}</ref>
| 3<sup>(b)</sup><ref>[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1099790/ "The Universe" Beyond the Big Bang (2007)<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
| 7
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|Ravi|Sheth}}
| 3
| 3
| 6
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|Alexandra|Shlapentokh}}
| 2<sup></sup>
| 3<sup>(b)</sup>
| 5<sup>(b)</sup>
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|Brian|Wandell}}
| 3<ref name=Erdos/><ref name=WandellYellott>{{cite journal |author=Yellott JI, Wandell BA |title=Color properties of the contrast flash effect: monoptic vs dichoptic comparisons |journal=Vision Res. |volume=16 |issue=11 |pages=1275–80 |year=1976 |pmid=1006999 |url=http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/0042-6989(76)90053-5 |doi=10.1016/0042-6989(76)90053-5}}</ref>
| 2<ref name="WandellDern">{{cite web
| url = http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097336/fullcredits#cast
| title = Full cast and crew for Fat Man And Little Boy
| publisher = [[Internet Movie Database]]
| accessdate = 2007-06-19
}}</ref><ref name="DernBacon">{{cite web
| url = http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0234354/fullcredits#cast
| title = Full cast and crew for Novocaine
| publisher = [[Internet Movie Database]]
| accessdate = 2007-06-19
}}</ref>
| 5
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|Kevin|Warwick}}
| 4
| 2<sup>(e)</sup>
| 6<sup>(e)</sup>
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|Wendelin|Werner}}
| 3<ref> Shi, Zhan; Werner, Wendelin. Asymptotics for occupation times of half-lines by stable processes and perturbed reflecting Brownian motion. Stochastics Stochastics Rep. 55 (1995), no. 1-2, 71–85. </ref><ref>Csáki, Endre; Shi, Zhan. Large favourite sites of simple random walk and the Wiener process. Electron. J. Probab. 3 (1998), no. 14, 31. </ref><ref> Csáki, E.; Erdös, P.; Révész, P. On the length of the longest excursion. Z. Wahrsch. Verw. Gebiete 68 (1985), no. 3, 365–382. </ref>
| 3<ref> [http://oracleofbacon.org/cgi-bin/oracle/movielinks?firstname=Bacon%2C+Kevin&game=1&secondname=Werner%2C+Wendelin] Wendelin Werner at the Oracle of Bacon </ref>
| 6
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|Fred Alan|Wolf}}
| 5
| 3<sup>(b)</sup>
| 8<sup>(b)</sup>
|-
! style="background: #efefef; font-weight: normal;" | {{sortname|K.N.|King}}
| 4<ref>[http://www.ams.org/mathscinet/collaborationDistance.html]K.N. King at AMS Collaboration Distance generator.</ref>
| 3<sup>(d)</sup>
| 7
|}
Notes:

:<sup>(b)</sup> Includes role as self
:<sup>(c)</sup> Includes technical report posthumously published in a book (otherwise Erdős number 3, Erdős–Bacon number 5)
:<sup>(d)</sup> Includes role as extra
:<sup>(e)</sup> Includes documentary and film score credits
:<sup>(f)</sup> Includes television roles as self in ''[[The Simpsons]]'', ''[[Futurama]]'', and ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]''
:<sup>(g)</sup> Includes nonacademic paper
:<sup>(h)</sup> Includes archival footage
<!-- :<sup>(*)</sup> Includes voice-over and television work -->
:<sup>(i)</sup> Includes [[Academy Awards]] ceremony


==References==
==References==

Revision as of 14:14, 25 July 2009

A person's Erdős–Bacon number is a concept which reflects the small world phenomenon in academia and entertainment. It is the sum of a person's Erdős number and their Bacon number. The Erdős number is a measure of the "collaborative distance" in authoring mathematical papers between that person and Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős, and the Bacon number represents the number of links, through roles in films, by which the person is separated from American actor Kevin Bacon. Therefore, to have a defined Erdős–Bacon number, it is necessary for one to have both appeared in a film and co-authored an academic paper. The lower the number, the closer an individual is to Erdős and Bacon.

The idea of Erdős–Bacon numbers has been written about by Simon Singh in the British media[1][2] and Benjamin Rosenbaum,[3] among others,[4] in the blogosphere. However, the idea had appeared in print before, at least as early as 1998, when it was mentioned about Daniel Kleitman appearing in Good Will Hunting.[5]

References

  1. ^ Simon Singh (2005). "A Further Five Numbers, Programme 3: 6 degrees of separation". BBC. Also available at [1]. Retrieved 2006-12-01. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  2. ^ Simon Singh (2002). "And the Winner Tonight Is". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2006-12-01. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  3. ^ Benjamin Rosenbaum (2004). "Bacon-Erdős numbers". Retrieved 2006-12-01. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  4. ^ Cory Doctorow (2004). "Erdős-Bacon numbers". Boing Boing. Retrieved 2006-12-01. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  5. ^ Diane Nelson, EVERYONE'S JUST A FACTOR OF SIX APART, June 14, 1998, The Modesto Bee: "Add the two and you have a guy like Dan Kleitman with a combined Erdos-Bacon ... a paper with Erdos and appeared in "Good Will Hunting" with Minnie Driver, ..."
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Erdős–Bacon_number&oldid=304123694"