# Anyone with an Erdos number? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 15, 2012, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-with-an-erdos-number/634806 "2012-09-15T18:55:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2012, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-with-an-erdos-number/634806/1 "2012-09-15T18:55:19Z")
This thread: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=74048](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=74048) made we wonder if anyone else here has an Erdos number (see [Erdős number - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erd%C5%91s_number) for explanation). Mine is 2. I read somewhere that the largest known one is 13. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2012, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-with-an-erdos-number/634806/2 "2012-09-15T18:58:18Z")
Mine is three. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2012, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-with-an-erdos-number/634806/3 "2012-09-15T19:12:52Z")
Mine is 4. ---
**Author:** ![Topologist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/topologist/32/3208_2.png) [@Topologist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Topologist)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2012, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-with-an-erdos-number/634806/4 "2012-09-15T19:24:47Z")
Mine is also 4. I didn’t know until just now that MathSciNet will find your Erdos number for you. ---
**Author:** ![mozchron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mozchron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mozchron)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2012, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-with-an-erdos-number/634806/5 "2012-09-15T19:57:00Z")
Mine’s 5 if we count all publication types, or 7 if we restrict it to peer-reviewed. On edit, no, its 5 due to a paper we just published! ---
**Author:** ![Lobot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce7236/32.png) [@Lobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobot)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2012, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-with-an-erdos-number/634806/6 "2012-09-15T23:20:25Z")
Mine’s also 5, which is apparently the median. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2012, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-with-an-erdos-number/634806/7 "2012-09-15T23:32:39Z")
My uncles’s is 4. ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2012, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-with-an-erdos-number/634806/8 "2012-09-15T23:54:07Z")
Mine’s 6, from a different field. ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-with-an-erdos-number/634806/9 "2012-09-16T00:00:29Z")
> [@Enginerd](#): > > Mine’s 6, from a different field. My mistake - I’m at 5 (I’m running coauthors through the MathSciNet connection, since I’m not in there). ---
**Author:** ![Lobot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce7236/32.png) [@Lobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobot)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-with-an-erdos-number/634806/10 "2012-09-16T00:16:35Z")
Yeah, I should add that I’m in Computer Science. ---
**Author:** ![ataraxy22](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ataraxy22/32/307_2.png) [@ataraxy22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ataraxy22)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-with-an-erdos-number/634806/11 "2012-09-16T02:22:52Z")
Yep. Mine is a 3. ---
**Author:** ![Jamaika\_a\_jamaikaiake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7993a0/32.png) [@Jamaika\_a\_jamaikaiake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jamaika_a_jamaikaiake)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-with-an-erdos-number/634806/12 "2012-09-16T03:24:02Z")
MathSciNet has me at 4. If you count a published conference proceedings paper, it is 3. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-with-an-erdos-number/634806/13 "2012-09-16T04:45:18Z")
Anyone have an [Erdos/Bacon Number](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erd%C5%91s%E2%80%93Bacon_number)? I mean besides [Danica McKellar](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danica_McKellar)… ---
**Author:** ![JWT\_Kottekoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3ec8ea/32.png) [@JWT\_Kottekoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JWT_Kottekoe)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-with-an-erdos-number/634806/14 "2012-09-16T04:47:11Z")
The MathSciNet app clearly has a limited database. I work with (but have never published with) a couple of 2’s and know many of their co-authors. I searched for four of them, all with Erdos number 3 and none of them turned up. Perhaps the database does not cover bioinformatics very well. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-with-an-erdos-number/634806/15 "2012-09-16T07:48:27Z")
> [@digs](#): > > Anyone have an [Erdos/Bacon Number](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erd%C5%91s%E2%80%93Bacon_number)? I mean besides [Danica McKellar](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danica_McKellar)… Hey, don’t forget [Natalie Portman!](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natalie_Portman) > [@](#): > > In 2002, she contributed to a study on memory called “Frontal Lobe Activation during Object Permanence: Data from Near-Infrared Spectroscopy” during her psychology studies at Harvard. This publication placed Portman among a very small number of professional actors with a defined Erdős–Bacon number. Looks, talent, \*and \*brains… excuse me, I’ll just be in my bunk for a while, brb. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-with-an-erdos-number/634806/16 "2012-09-16T12:45:40Z")
I’ve had a 3 for quite some time. I just did a check on the AMS [search engine](http://www.ams.org/mathscinet/collaborationDistance.html) gave me yet another 3-path. Different people in-between on both. I am 5 from Danica McKellar which makes me 6 from Sheldon Cooper? ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-with-an-erdos-number/634806/17 "2012-09-16T14:23:11Z")
Clearly there are mathematicians who have coauthored papers with biologists and others, so in theory, most scientists should have an Erdos number. How do I find this pathway? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-with-an-erdos-number/634806/18 "2012-09-16T15:39:47Z")
I know someone with a 2 - does that make me a 3? [Here’s a fine Erdos Number story](http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2009/06/21/xkcd_meets_real.html), for those o’ ya: > [@](#): > > By the way, there’s no need to wait until the end times to write papers with dead mathematicians. One example of this is the paper “Higher algebraic K-theory of schemes and of derived categories” by R. W. Thomason and Thomas Trobaugh, which Thomason wrote with his deceased friend Trobaugh after Trobaugh appeared to him in a dream: > > “The first author must state that his coauthor and close friend, Tom Trobaugh, quite intelligent, singularly original, and inordinately generous, killed himself consequent to endogenous depression. Ninety-four days later, in my dream, Tom’s simulacrum remarked, ‘The direct limit characterization of perfect complexes shows that they extend, just as one extends a coherent sheaf.’ Awaking with a start, I knew this idea had to be wrong, since some perfect complexes have a non-vanishing K\_0 obstruction to extension. I had worked on this problem for 3 years, and saw this approach to be hopeless. But Tom’s simulacrum had been so insistent, I knew he wouldn’t let me sleep undisturbed until I had worked out the argument and could point to the gap. This work quickly led to the key results of this paper. To Tom, I could have explained why he must be listed as a coauthor.” ---
**Author:** ![Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-with-an-erdos-number/634806/19 "2012-09-16T16:11:49Z")
Does ∞ ring a familiar note? ---
**Author:** ![breezman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@breezman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/breezman)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-with-an-erdos-number/634806/20 "2012-09-16T16:15:55Z")
Mine (like many many others) is 3. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-with-an-erdos-number/634806.md?page=2)