| Revision as of 23:42, 3 February 2006 editDylan Thurston (talk | contribs)341 edits Update info with Diaconis-Erdos paper← Previous edit | Revision as of 23:52, 3 February 2006 edit undoDylan Thurston (talk | contribs)341 edits Kleitman did appear as extraNext edit → | ||
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| ], most famous for her role as ] in ], has an Erdős-Bacon number of 6. | ], most famous for her role as ] in ], has an Erdős-Bacon number of 6. | ||
| ], a mathematician at MIT, was an advisor for the movie '']'' |
], a mathematician at MIT, was an advisor for the movie '']'' and appeared briefly as an extra. ] appeared in that movie, and she also appeared in '']'' with Kevin Bacon. So Kleitman's Bacon number is 2. On the other hand, he coauthored a paper with Erdõs. This gives him an Erdõs-Bacon number of 3. This would probably be the ] of the set of all existing Erdös-Bacon numbers. | ||
| ], a ] player, is sometimes also considered to have an Erdõs-Bacon number of 3, as he and Erdõs both autographed a baseball (from which is he jokingly referred to as having Erdõs number of 1), and he also appeared in ''Summer Catch'' with ], who was in ''In The Cut'' with Bacon. | ], a ] player, is sometimes also considered to have an Erdõs-Bacon number of 3, as he and Erdõs both autographed a baseball (from which is he jokingly referred to as having Erdõs number of 1), and he also appeared in ''Summer Catch'' with ], who was in ''In The Cut'' with Bacon. | ||
Revision as of 23:52, 3 February 2006
A person's Erdős-Bacon number is the sum of their Erdős number and their Bacon number. To have a finite Erdős-Bacon number, one must therefore have both appeared in a film and co-authored a mathematical paper.
For a time, the sole person with the lowest known Erdős-Bacon number was Brian Greene. He appeared in Frequency with John Di Benedetto, who was in 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.
Brian Greene was later matched by Dave Bayer, mathematical consultant to A Beautiful Mind who received a minor role on screen in the movie. Rance Howard was also in A Beautiful Mind and in Apollo 13 with Kevin Bacon to give Bayer a Bacon number of 2. Bayer wrote a paper with Persi Diaconis, who had an Erdős number of 2 until 2004, when he published a posthumous paper with Paul Erdős. So Bayer's Erdős-Bacon number is now 4.
Danica McKellar, most famous for her role as Winnie Cooper in The Wonder Years, has an Erdős-Bacon number of 6.
Danny Kleitman, a mathematician at MIT, was an advisor for the movie Good Will Hunting and appeared briefly as an extra. Minnie Driver appeared in that movie, and she also appeared in Sleepers with Kevin Bacon. So Kleitman's Bacon number is 2. On the other hand, he coauthored a paper with Erdõs. This gives him an Erdõs-Bacon number of 3. This would probably be the infimum of the set of all existing Erdös-Bacon numbers.
Hank Aaron, a baseball player, is sometimes also considered to have an Erdõs-Bacon number of 3, as he and Erdõs both autographed a baseball (from which is he jokingly referred to as having Erdõs number of 1), and he also appeared in Summer Catch with Susan Gardner, who was in In The Cut with Bacon.
External links
- Erdos-Bacon Numbers - Written for the Daily Telegraph, April 2002
- The Erdös Number Project
- Boing Boing directory article
- BBC Radio 4 - A Further 5 Numbers