# What is your Erdös number? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 10, 2006, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-erdos-number/379935 "2006-11-10T21:37:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-erdos-number/379935/21 "2006-11-15T06:55:52Z")
[QUOTE=Subway Prophet] I just wanted to mention that [Danica McKellar](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danica_McKellar) (she played Winnie on _The Wonder Years_) likely has a finite [Erdös-Bacon Number](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erdos-Bacon_number), which is a sum of the two. [/QUOTE] I, personally, have an Erdös-Bacon Number of 6. Yes, I’m serious. OK, I’m not 100% percent sure about the Erdös part. I’m about 70% sure that a guy I published with in 1996 had an Erdös Number of 2, giving me a 3. (If it’s not a 3, then I know I have a 4.) And I have a Kevin Bacon Number of 3. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-erdos-number/379935/22 "2006-11-15T16:22:45Z")
I just got word via the Erdos project that I have an Erdos number no higher than 6, which is better than the 8 I gave previously. I suspect it might still be lower, if I really search. I’ve never been in any movie, but, as noted, I’ve appeared in two stage productions with someone with a Bacon number of two, giving me an Erdos-quasi-Bacon number of no more than 8. **jackelope** , you have to share with us. How’d you get a Bacon number of 3? ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-erdos-number/379935/23 "2006-11-15T22:29:34Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] **jackelope** , you have to share with us. How’d you get a Bacon number of 3? [/QUOTE] Thanks for asking! I was in an independent movie (not currently listed on IMDb, but discussed in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=392381)) called _Eat_, directed by the SDMB’s own **vibrotronica**. _Eat_ also starred a guy named [Jeff Pope](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2142326/), who has a role in the upcoming movie [Black Snake Moan](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0462200/) starring [Samuel L. Jackson](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000168/), who is set to star in [Black Water Transit](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0490087/) with [Kevin Bacon](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000102/). Granted, the latter two movies haven’t been released yet, but I’m not above making some possibly shaky assumptions about the future of a Hollywood production… _as long as it helps my Erdös-Bacon Number_, that is. So: Kevin Bacon (0) -\> Samuel L. Jackson (1) -\> Jeff Pope (2) -\> me (3). ---
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-erdos-number/379935/24 "2006-11-15T22:45:59Z")
If **WhyNot** ’s calculations are correct, then I have a quasi-Erdös number of 7. A friend of mine is Blake Pickett (TNT Nitro Girl); she was in \*Hourglass \* with Kiefer Sutherland, who was in _A Few Good Men_ with Kevin Bacon, who was in _Loverboy_ with Sandra Bullock, who was in _Forces of Nature_ with Taylor Gilbert, who was in _Star Worms II_ with John Knoop, who was cinematographer on _N is a Number_ with Paul Erdös. I wonder if there’s a “Six Degrees” variation with political figures? I had dinner once with Sen. John Gianetti of Maryland. Does that connect me to, say, Kofi Annan? Vicente Fox? Stalin? ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-erdos-number/379935/25 "2006-11-15T23:27:05Z")
I believe that one of my graduate committee members has an Erdos number of 3. (He definitely has a low Erdos number.) Since I’ve co-authored a paper with him, that gives me an Erdos number of 4. ---
**Author:** ![carterba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85e7bf/32.png) [@carterba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carterba)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-erdos-number/379935/26 "2006-11-15T23:42:37Z")
My Erdos number is 3. I think I’ve got the lowest so far. And I’m just a computer science grad student… As for the Bacon number, is it legal to go through writers? If so, I can get a Bacon number thanks to a couple of Futurama writers that had previous careers as mathematicians or computer scientists. Specifically I can get to Jeffrey Westbrook through academic publications. He wrote an episode of Futurama with David X. Cohen, who wrote an episode with Matt Groening, who can be linked to Kevin Bacon the traditional way. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-erdos-number/379935/27 "2006-11-16T04:03:13Z")
You mean … [Britney’s Guide to Semiconductor Physics](http://britneyspears.ac/lasers.htm) isn’t in the Erdos net, but those talentless sluts Danica and Natalie are? ---
**Author:** ![Parthol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/dec6dc/32.png) [@Parthol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Parthol)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-erdos-number/379935/28 "2006-11-16T06:07:15Z")
My wife has an Erdos number of 2. She’s a mathematician/programmer who spent a summer at IBM a few years back, and while there published a paper with someone who published with Erdos. Does that mean I have a Erdos-in-law number of 3? 😃 -P ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-erdos-number/379935/29 "2006-11-16T07:24:00Z")
Heh. I’ve got an Erdos number of 6, through C. L. Liu (4). One of his students worked for me, and we have a paper together. Far from Math. I don’t have a Bacon number (unless you count TV and Alex Trebek has one) but my daughter worked with Adam West and Michelle Trachtenberg. Adam West’s number (which I forget) is in the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon book. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-erdos-number/379935/30 "2006-11-17T00:25:54Z")
After reading this, I’ve decided that I definitely need to have a finite Bacon-Erdös number. At first I though that this means I need to be in a movie and coauthor an academic paper, but then I realized that if anyone has a finite Bacon-Erdös number, then everyone with a finite Bacon number or finite Erdös number has a finite Bacon-Erdös number. So I only need to do one of those things. I think I’ll go for the academic paper route. ---
**Author:** ![edwino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@edwino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwino)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-erdos-number/379935/31 "2006-11-17T04:36:05Z")
Hmm. My Erdös number, apparently, is 4. Erdös publised with Laszol Szekely. Szekely published with Eugene Koonin. Koonin published with just about everybody, including Richard Gibbs, on the human genome paper. And I published with Richard Gibbs. Not bad for a molecular geneticist. ---
**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:** [November 19, 2006, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-erdos-number/379935/32 "2006-11-19T17:39:19Z")
Oops, I have to share. It turns out that my whole research group (that means me!) have Erdos numbers of 3, except the one guy who we just discovered has number 2. Woohoo! Erdos --\> Wagstaff --\> Atallah --\> all of us. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-erdos-number/379935.md?page=1)