The Erdős-Bacon Number

A lot of you will be familiar with the Bacon number. It's a play on the "six degrees of separation" concept that states that everyone in the world is six or fewer degrees separated from anyone else, one degree being someone you personally know.

Image: Wikimedia Commons

This graphic shows a minimum spanning tree, which is not what I'm talking about, but I'll take the heat from all the angry graph theorists. 

Someone's 'Bacon number' is this concept played out specifically with Kevin Bacon. Film buffs might play a game trying to link actors to Bacon in as few shared movies as possible.

To give an example, my Bacon number is 4. One of my cousins went to a doctor that had also worked on Micheal Jordan, who appeared in this commercial with Kevin Bacon:

So from me to my cousin (1), to the doctor (2), to Michael (3), to Kevin, there are 4 steps. (I also have a Bacon number of 4 via a family friend, Cozi Zuehlsdorff, Christopher de Stefano to Kevin)

Note: another definition of the Bacon number is that one must use film credits rather than personal connections, and it's this definition we will be using later on.

<sidenote>
Facebook generates a lot of data, and decided to calculate the average connectivity of its users: 3.57 degrees
</sidenote>

Image: Topsy Kretts

Paul Erdős

Another similar number exists, and that is the Erdős number. Paul Erdős was an unusually prolific mathematician and collaborated with a huge number of scientists during his career. Many academics calculate their "Erdős number," which is calculated in a similar fashion as the Bacon Number, but rather than personal connection, you would use academic papers that share the authors' name.

Using these two numbers, you can calculate someone's Erdős-Bacon number, which is the sum of the two numbers. Naturally, this requires both being credited in at least one film as well as author an academic paper, something very few people have done.

A number of famous names have low Erdős-Bacon Numbers:

Richard Feynmann appeared in the film Anti-Clock, which gives him a Bacon number of 3, and an Erdős number of 3 gives him an EBN of 6.

 Carl Sagan had an EBN of 6 as well.

The scientist Stephen Hawking actually has a lower Bacon number (2) than an Erdős number (4), for an ENB of 6.

Natalie Portman, as well as the Big Bang Theory actress Mayim Bialik, have both published papers, giving them Erdős numbers of 5. Both have Bacon numbers of 2, giving both women an EBN of 7.

Perhaps the lowest Erdős Bacon Number belongs to a man named Albert A Chan. He acted alongside Bacon in Patriot Day, giving him a Bacon number of 1, and has published work that achieves an Erdős number of 3, giving him the lowest Erdős-Bacon Number at 4.

Another quick note on interdisciplinary achievement - only one person in history has ever received both an Oscar and a Superbowl Ring - film producer and businessman Steve Tisch. Tisch, as the Executive Vice President of the New York Giants, received Superbowl championship rings for the 2007 and 2011 seasons, as well as an Oscar for producing Forrest Gump.


Cheers,

    - Scott


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