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my erdős number

with 11 comments

Fabio

Over dinner with grad school buddies Elena Obukhova, Genevieve Pham-Kanter and Fen Lin, Genny asked me if I had an Erdos number. At first, I thought I didn’t have one since I write mainly single authored papers. Then I realized my Erdos number is at most 8.

Yes, it’s high, but at least I have one. The chain is: Fabio Rojas –> Kirby Schroeder –> Stephen Ellingson –> Edward O. Laumann –> Joe Galaskiewicz –> Stanley Wasserman –> Barry Wellman –> Frank Harary –> Paul Erdos.

Then, Genny asked me if I had an Erdos-Bacon number – the co-authoring network distance between you and Erdos plus your distance to Kevin Bacon in the movie co-starring network. I have never been in a feature film, nor do I appear in the credits of any feature film. At best, I could say my wife’s cousin did sound work for Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto, but that probably does not count. My guess is that I don’t have a Bacon number.

However, I’ll introduce an extremely hip and cool quantity: the Miles Davis number, the distance between you and ultra-cool trumpet god Miles Davis in the jazz co-performance network. My Davis number is 3 because one of my music teachers once invited me to perform with him: Fabio Rojas –> Bill Bell –> Dizzy Gillespie –> Miles Davis. As a consequence, my Erdos-Davis number is 11. Yes, that’s right, 11.

Update: In the comments, I learned that my distance to Jeremy Freese is 3 and Jeremy’s Erdos number is 4. So my upper bound Erdos number is 7 and the Erdos-Davis number is 10.

Written by fabiorojas

March 4, 2007 at 9:51 pm

Posted in academia, fabio, what does this have to do w/ org theory?

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11 Responses

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  1. I always knew you were a superstar, but this confirms it.

    Genny (Erdos number = infinity, Erdos-Bacon number = fuhgeddaboudit)

    Genny

    March 4, 2007 at 10:21 pm

  2. Interesting to know that Joe is only three links away from Paul Erdos. Hmm….that means that all of his coauthors (like Jeff) can brag about having a relatively low Erdos number. And since Jeff and I have a paper coming out sometime in the next year, then that means that my Erdos number will no longer be infinity. Thanks Jeff! I wonder if I can put that in my reappointment file…

    Omar

    March 4, 2007 at 10:49 pm

  3. I have seen a few CV’s listing Erdos numbers, but it impresses only fellow nerds.

    Fabio Rojas

    March 5, 2007 at 12:18 am

  4. i am glad to see there are others – not in mathematics – who find Erdős numbers interesting – no one seemed to know what i was talking about when i told them that with my first publication i ended up with an Erdős number of 4: jimi adams – James Moody – Douglas R. White – Frank Harary – Paul Erdős. Ironically, this was just about the time that there was someone selling the opportunity to get to a 5 on Ebay. Now Miles Davis – that’s an infinite chain for me.

    jimi

    March 5, 2007 at 2:35 am

  5. Eszter Hargittai’s Erdos number is 3.

    Kieran

    March 5, 2007 at 3:21 am

  6. Mine is 4 since I have co-authored with Eszter. I don’t know enough about Fabio’s collaborators to know if I can reach him in 3.

    Jeremy

    March 5, 2007 at 3:24 am

  7. One 3-chain from Jeremy to Fabio is:

    Jeremy –> Brian Powell –> Nick Rowland –> Fabio

    Thus, Jeremy’s Erdos-Rojas number is 4+3=7.

    I am not directly connected to many folks since I don’t work in large research teams – all my stuff is solo or double co-authored, but you can get to me through a few socio-metric stars: Brian Powell (IU-soc), Ed Laumann (soc at Chicago) or Mark Hansen (poli sci at Chicago) because I’ve worked with one of their collaborators.

    Fabio Rojas

    March 5, 2007 at 3:51 am

  8. I am not directly connected to many folks since I don’t work in large research teams

    This is clearly the right line of response here. “I do not have a high number because I actually write all my own papers.” I like it.

    Kieran

    March 5, 2007 at 5:06 am

  9. For some reason, you left out a link to my website:

    http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman

    And my Kevin Bacon number is probably #3.
    IMDB doesn’t say that my neighbour David Lee (Academy Award winning sound mixer for Chicago ever worked with KB, but given David and Kevin’s many years of work, they most likely have someone in common.

    PS: I don’t think we’ve ever met.

    Barry Wellman

    March 6, 2007 at 2:53 pm

  10. Well, I don’t know if this helps, but you and I co-authored a paper and I was on conan o’brien and Kevin Bacon was also on Conan O’Brien (not at the same time, but still).

    Tom Howe

    March 6, 2007 at 3:21 pm

  11. At best, I could say my wife’s cousin did sound work for Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto, but that probably does not count. My guess is that I don’t have a Bacon number.

    Actually, Fabkat, my acknowledgment on the DVD release of “the Debut” (2000, dir. Gene Cajayon) gives me a Bacon number of 3: elizp -> Dante Basco -> Beau Starr -> Kevin Bacon

    Your Bacon number remains infinite.

    elizp

    March 6, 2007 at 7:35 pm


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