Erdős–Bacon number: Difference between revisions

Browse history interactively ← Previous edit Next edit →Content deleted Content addedVisual WikitextInline

Revision as of 03:19, 18 April 2006 editTrystan (talk \| contribs)Extended confirmed users7,528 editsNo edit summary← Previous edit		Revision as of 15:52, 21 April 2006 edit undoEzubaric (talk \| contribs)201 editsNo edit summaryNext edit →
Line 7:		Line 7:
	], 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 '']'' and appeared briefly as an uncredited 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 Erdős. This gives him an Erdős-Bacon number of 3. This would probably be the ] of the set of all existing Erdős-Bacon numbers. The only way a lower number could be achieved would be for Kevin Bacon to appear in a movie with an individual having an Erdős number of 1, which would give that person an Erdős-Bacon number of 2, or for Bacon to co-author an academic paper with someone with an Erdős number of 1, which would give Bacon himself an Erdős-Bacon number of 2.		], a mathematician at MIT, was an advisor for the movie '']'' and appeared briefly as an uncredited 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 Erdős. This gives him an Erdős-Bacon number of 3. This would probably be the ] of the set of all existing Erdős-Bacon numbers. The only way a lower number could be achieved would be for Kevin Bacon to appear in a movie with an individual having an Erdős number of 1, which would give that person an Erdős-Bacon number of 2 or for Bacon to co-author an academic paper with someone with an Erdős number of 1, which would give Bacon himself an Erdős-Bacon number of 2.

	], a ] player, is sometimes also considered to have an Erdõs-Bacon number of 3, as he and Erdős both autographed a baseball (for which is he jokingly referred to as having Erdős 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 Erdős both autographed a baseball (for which is he jokingly referred to as having Erdős number of 1), and he also appeared in ''Summer Catch'' with ], who was in ''In The Cut'' with Bacon.

Revision as of 15:52, 21 April 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 an academic 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.

Daniel Kleitman, a mathematician at MIT, was an advisor for the movie Good Will Hunting and appeared briefly as an uncredited 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 Erdős. This gives him an Erdős-Bacon number of 3. This would probably be the infimum of the set of all existing Erdős-Bacon numbers. The only way a lower number could be achieved would be for Kevin Bacon to appear in a movie with an individual having an Erdős number of 1, which would give that person an Erdős-Bacon number of 2 or for Bacon to co-author an academic paper with someone with an Erdős number of 1, which would give Bacon himself an Erdős-Bacon number of 2.

Hank Aaron, a baseball player, is sometimes also considered to have an Erdõs-Bacon number of 3, as he and Erdős both autographed a baseball (for which is he jokingly referred to as having Erdős number of 1), and he also appeared in Summer Catch with Susan Gardner, who was in In The Cut with Bacon.

Erdős himself seems to have an undefined Erdős-Bacon number. While his Erdős number is clearly 0, his Bacon number is likely undefined; it was previously believed to be lower due to a conflation of similarly named persons. Similarly, Bacon's Erdős number is likely undefined.

External links

Categories: