Closeness of someone's association with mathematician Paul Erdős and actor Kevin Bacon
A person'sErdős–Bacon number is the sum of theirErdős number—which measures the "collaborative distance" in authoring academic papers between that person and Hungarian mathematicianPaul Erdős—and theirBacon number—which represents the number of links, through roles in films, by which the person is separated from American actorKevin Bacon.[1][2] The lower the number, the closer a person is to Erdős and Bacon, which reflects asmall world phenomenon in academia and entertainment.[3]
To have a defined Erdős–Bacon number, it is necessary to have both appeared in a film and co-authored an academic paper, although this in and of itself is not sufficient as one's co-authors must have a known chain leading to Paul Erdős, and one's film must have actors eventually leading to Kevin Bacon.
MathematicianDaniel Kleitman has an Erdős–Bacon number of 3. He co-authored papers with Erdős and has a Bacon number of 2 via his appearance as an extra inGood Will Hunting, withMinnie Driver; Driver and Bacon appeared together inSleepers.[4][5][6]
Metropolis andRichard Feynman both worked on theManhattan Project atLos Alamos Laboratory. Via Metropolis, Feynman has an Erdős number of 3 and, from having appeared in the filmAnti-Clock alongsideTony Tang, Feynman also has a Bacon number of 3. Richard Feynman thus has an Erdős–Bacon number of 6.[7]
LinguistNoam Chomsky has an Erdős number of 4,[12] he also co-starred withDanny Glover in the 2005 documentaryThe Peace!, giving him a Bacon number of 2[13] and combined Erdős–Bacon number of 6.
British actorColin Firth has an Erdős–Bacon number of 6. Firth is credited as co-author of a neuroscience paper, "Political Orientations Are Correlated with Brain Structure in Young Adults",[23] after he suggested onBBC Radio 4 that such a study could be done.[24] Another author of that paper,Geraint Rees, has an Erdős number of 4,[25] which gives Firth an Erdős number of 5. Firth's Bacon number of 1 is due to his appearance inWhere the Truth Lies.[26][27]
Israeli-American actressNatalie Portman has an Erdős–Bacon number of 7.[28] She collaborated (using her birth name, Natalie Hershlag) with Abigail A. Baird,[29] who has a collaboration path[30][31][32] leading toJoseph Gillis, who has an Erdős number of 1, giving Portman an Erdős number of 5.[33] Portman appeared inA Powerful Noise Live (2009) withSarah Michelle Gellar, who appeared inThe Air I Breathe (2007) with Bacon, giving Portman a Bacon number of 2.[34]
American actressKristen Stewart has an Erdős–Bacon number of 7; she is credited as a co-author on anartificial intelligence paper that was written after a technique was used for her short filmCome Swim, giving her an Erdős number of 5,[35][36] and she co-starred withMichael Sheen inTwilight, who co-starred with Bacon inFrost/Nixon, giving her a Bacon number of 2.[37]
Bill Gates has an Erdős number of 4[41] and in 1987 he participated in a shortmockumentary titledCitizen Steve aboutSteven Spielberg, where he co-starred withWhoopi Goldberg, giving him a Bacon number of 2[42] and consequently an Erdős–Bacon number of 6.
^Baird, Abigail A.; Colvin, Mary K.; Vanhorn, John D.; Inati, Souheil; Gazzaniga, Michael S. (2005). "Functional Connectivity: Integrating Behavioral, Diffusion Tensor Imaging, and Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Data Sets".Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.17 (4):687–93.CiteSeerX10.1.1.484.1868.doi:10.1162/0898929053467569.PMID15829087.S2CID4666737.
^Victor, Jonathan D.; Maiese, Kenneth; Shapley, Robert; Sidtis, John; Gazzaniga, Michael S. (1989). "Acquired central dyschromatopsia: analysis of a case with preservation of color discrimination".Clinical Vision Sciences.4:183–96.
^Azor, Ruth; Gillis, J.; Victor, J. D. (1982). "Combinatorial Applications of Hermite Polynomials".SIAM Journal on Mathematical Analysis.13 (5):879–90.doi:10.1137/0513062.
^Erdos, P.; Gillis, J. (2009). "Note on the Transfinite Diameter".Journal of the London Mathematical Society. s1-12 (3): 185.doi:10.1112/jlms/s1-12.2.185.
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