Erdos-Bacon number
Encyclopedia
A person's Erdős–Bacon number is the sum of one's Erdős number
—which measures the "collaborative distance" in authoring mathematical papers between that person and Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős
—and one's Bacon number—which represents the number of links, through roles in films, by which the individual is separated from American actor Kevin Bacon
. The lower the number, the closer a person is to Erdős and Bacon, and this reflects a small world phenomenon in academia and entertainment.
The idea of Erdős–Bacon numbers has been written about by Simon Singh
in the British
media and Benjamin Rosenbaum
, among others, in the blogosphere
. However, the idea had appeared in print before, notably in 1998, when it was mentioned in response to Daniel Kleitman
appearing in Good Will Hunting
.
Roles as self, as a cameo appearance
, or as an extra
are often included for the Bacon component. The Erdős criterion technically refers to collaboration on mathematical papers, but it is often relaxed to include general research articles for the Erdős–Bacon number.
In general, to have a defined Erdős–Bacon number, it is necessary (but not sufficient) for one to have both appeared in a film and co-authored an academic paper.
Notable scientists with defined Erdős–Bacon numbers include popular astronomer
Carl Sagan
and theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking
. One of the best-known actors with a number is actress Natalie Portman
, whose authorship of a psychology paper during her Harvard degree in psychology earned her an Erdős–Bacon number of 6 (see table below).
Daniel Kleitman
, a mathematician at MIT, was an advisor for the movie Good Will Hunting
and appeared briefly as an uncredited extra. Minnie Driver
, who appeared in that movie, also appeared in Sleepers
with Kevin Bacon; as such, Kleitman's Bacon number is 2. He also coauthored a paper with Erdős. This gives him an Erdős–Bacon number of 3.
For a time, the person with the lowest known Erdős–Bacon number was Dave Bayer
, mathematical consultant to A Beautiful Mind
who was on screen in a minor role in the movie. Rance Howard
was also in A Beautiful Mind
and in Apollo 13
with Kevin Bacon to give Bayer a Bacon number of 2. Bayer wrote a paper with Persi Diaconis
, who has an Erdős number of 1 due to a jointly authored 1977 Stanford University
technical report
, later published in a 2004 compilation. As such, Bayer's Erdős–Bacon number is 4. Diaconis himself has an Erdős–Bacon number of 5, and Bacon number of 4. He was in the documentary The Math Life with Freeman Dyson
, who was in A Glorious Accident with Oliver Sacks
. Sacks has a Bacon number of 2.
Bruce Reznick, a professor at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has an Erdős number of 1 and a Bacon number (by virtue of being an extra in Pretty Maids All in a Row
with Roddy McDowall) of 2, and thus has an Erdős–Bacon number of 3.
Mike Hirschhorn, a pure mathematician at UNSW in Australia, also counts an Erdős–Bacon number of 4. He is heard giving a mathematics lecture in the background at the beginning of the movie The Bank (2001), which stars Anthony La Paglia: La Paglia was in the movie He Said, She Said(1991) with Bacon. This gives Hirschhorn a Bacon number of 2. Hirschhorn was well acquainted with Erdős. He met Erdős in Rehovot in 1966, Sydney in 1969 and on several later occasions, including 1975, when Erdős entertained what he termed the Hirschhorn "epsilons" Jeremy and Andrew. They both now have Erdős number 3. Mike Hirschhorn’s Erdős number was nearly 1: Erdős was responsible for the crucial idea in Hirschhorn’s 1981 paper Infinitely many identities of Kolberg type but declined credit. However Hirschhorn has an Erdős number of 2 through both J.H. Loxton and M.V. Subbarao. His total Erdős–Bacon is therefore 2+2 = 4.
Robin E. Harte, former professor of mathematics at University College, Cork, Ireland, has an acting role unrelated to his mathematical life in Tony Bill's "Oliver Twist"(1997), where he appears slumped in the corner of a gaol cell accompanied (or not) by a rat. In this scene, he is directed to raise his head to observe the new inmate of his prison cell, Oliver Twist.
Elijah Wood, who appeared with Kevin Bacon in "Beyond all boundaries"(2009), plays the Artful Dodger in the film, giving Professor Harte a Bacon number of 2. Professor Harte has co-authored with Mostafa Mbekhta, who has co-authored with Endre Makai Jr, who has co-authored with Paul Erdős, so has an Erdős number of 3. Robin Harte's Erdős-Bacon number is 5.
Astronomer
Carl Sagan
has an Erdős number of no more than 4 via Steven J. Ostro
and a Bacon number of 3, for a total of 7. Physicist
Richard Feynman
has an Erdős number of 3 and a Bacon number of 3, having appeared in the film Anti-Clock
alongside Tony Tang
. Physicist
H. David Politzer has an Erdős number of 4 and a Bacon number of 2.
Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking
has an Erdős number of 4 and, if one can include any of his television guest roles as himself in The Simpsons
, Futurama
, and Star Trek: The Next Generation
, a Bacon number of 3. The mathematician Alex Schuster, a professor at San Francisco State University, has an Erdős number of 3. He also appeared in a single episode of the late 1980s Canadian television program ENG as an ice cream salesman. The show starred Victor Garber
, who has a Bacon number of 2. Schuster thus has a Bacon number of 3 and an Erdős–Bacon number of 6.
Astrophysicist and cosmologist Ravi Sheth at the University of Pennsylvania also has an Erdős–Bacon number of at most 6. His Erdős number of 3 comes through a paper with Max Tegmark
, who wrote a paper with his father, Harold S. Shapiro
, who wrote a paper with Erdős. He acquired a Bacon number of 3 by starring in the title role of the 1984 British TV film Kim
, which also starred Peter O'Toole
, who has a Bacon number of 2. Karl Schaffer is a dancer/choreographer who appeared as a "Killer Klown" in the 1988 film Killer Klowns from Outer Space
, and is also a mathematician at De Anza College
, with a Bacon number of 2 and an Erdős number of 3, for a sum of 5.
Mathematics professor Laura DeMarco at UIC has an Erdős number of 3 (through Rumely and Pomerance
)
and appeared briefly in Proof with Gwyneth Paltrow
which gives her a Bacon number of 3 (through Kelly Preston
)
and hence an Erdős–Bacon number of 6. The documentary Julia Robinson and Hilbert's Tenth Problem, with actress Danica McKellar
as narrator,
gave a Bacon number of 3 to several mathematicians appearing in the film as themselves, including
Lenore Blum
(4+3=7), Martin Davis
(3+3=6), Jan Denef
(3+3=6), Kirsten Eisenträger (2+3=5), Solomon Feferman
(3+3=6), Steven Givant (2+3=5), Yuri Matiyasevich
(2+3=5), Bjorn Poonen
(2+3=5), Hilary Putnam
(3+3=6), Dana Scott
(2+3=5), and Alexandra Shlapentokh (2+3=5).
Mathematician and Economics Nobel laureate John Nash, better known in popular culture as the subject of the unauthorized biography A Beautiful Mind
and the Academy Award-winning film adaptation
has an Erdős number of 4 and a Bacon number of 2, resulting in an Bacon-Erdős number of 6.
Electrical engineer Robert J. Marks II
appeared in Ben Stein
's movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
. Stein appeared with Bacon in Planes, Trains and Automobiles giving Marks a Bacon number of two. Marks has published with Donald C. Wunch II who published with Frank Harary who has coauthored with Erdős. Marks therefore has an Erdős number of three and Erdős–Bacon number of five. Philosopher and Mathematician William A. Dembski
also appeared in Expelled
. He has published with Marks and therefore has a Erdős–Bacon number of six.
Materials Scientist Tim Foecke
has a Bacon Number of 2 (Martin Sheen
having been the narrator of the Discovery Channel documentary Foecke participated in entitled "Titanic-Anatomy of a Disaster", and co-starred in the movie "JFK" with Kevin Bacon
), and an Erdos Number
of 4 (via Robb Thomson to Peter Bergmann To Ernst Straus to Paul Erdos
), giving him an Erdős–Bacon number of 6.
Linguist and language commentator Geoff Nunberg has a Bacon Number of 3 by several routes. His website cites the line through his appearance in the documentary F*ck with Pat Boone
, who was in The Cross and the Switchblade
(1970) with Erik Estrada
, who was in We Married Margo
(2000) with Kevin Bacon
. (An alternate calculation through Dennis Miller
via The Joy of Lex (2008) is also possible.) He has an Erdős Number
of 4, as a co-author with Jan Pedersen, who co-authored with John Tukey
, who is listed in the Erdős number Project, with a number 2 two ways, having co-authored with Arthur Harold Stone
and with Ralph Philip Boas, Jr., both of whom co-authored with Paul Erdős
. This gives him an Erdős–Bacon number of 7.
Kiralee Hayashi may be the professional actress with the lowest Erdős number (3), having co-written a peer-reviewed mathematics paper on Riemannian manifold
s with Fields medalist Shing-Tung Yau
, and having a Bacon number of 2, giving her an Erdős–Bacon number of 5.
Danica McKellar
, most famous for her role as Winnie Cooper in The Wonder Years
, has an Erdős–Bacon number of 6, having coauthored a mathematics
paper published while an undergraduate at UCLA. Her paper gives her an Erdős number of 4, and a Bacon number of 2, both of them having worked with Margaret Easley
.
US actress Natalie Portman
has an Erdős–Bacon number of 6. She collaborated (using her birth name, Natalie Hershlag) with Abigail A. Baird, who has a collaboration path leading to Joseph Gillis, who has an Erdős number of 1. Bacon and Portman both appear in New York, I Love You
, giving Portman a Bacon number of 1 and an Erdős number of 5.
Mayim Bialik
has an Erdős–Bacon number of at most 7, having worked on a book chapter and having a 5 point Erdős path connecting to Shing-Tung Yau
. Her Bacon number is 2.
British actor Colin Firth
has an Erdős–Bacon number of 7. Firth is formally credited as co-author of a neuroscience paper, "Political Orientations Are Correlated with Brain Structure in Young Adults", after he suggested on BBC Radio 4
that such a study could be done. Another author of that paper, Geraint Rees
, has an Erdős number of 5, which gives Firth an Erdős number of 6. Firth appeared with Kevin Bacon in Where the Truth Lies
, so his Bacon number is 1.
The movie What the Bleep Do We Know!?
, which featured both persons published in the sciences and an actress with Bacon number 2 (Academy Award winner Marlee Matlin
), gave Erdős–Bacon numbers to David Albert
(Erdős 4,
Erdős–Bacon 7), Fred Alan Wolf
(Erdős 5, Erdős–Bacon 8), and Natural Law Party
Presidential
Candidate John Hagelin
(Erdős 5 through frequent collaborator Dimitri Nanopoulos
, Erdős–Bacon 8), all appearing as themselves.
player, is sometimes also considered to have an Erdős–Bacon number of 3, as he and Erdős both autographed the same baseball (for which he is jokingly referred to as having Erdős number of 1), and he also appeared in Summer Catch
with Susan Gardner, who was in In The Cut
with Bacon. Charles Seife
, an author and journalist, co-authored a paper with Frank Moss (Erdős number 3) and appeared in a Discovery Channel
special with Brian Greene (Bacon number 2) for an Erdős–Bacon number of 7.
who are connected to Kevin Bacon, the average Bacon number is 2.957. For mathematicians listed in the American Mathematical Society's MR Collaboration Distance search engine who are connected to Erdős, the average Erdős number is 4.65. There currently exists no exhaustive list of people with defined Erdős–Bacon numbers, but a select group is listed below.
Notes:
Erdos number
The Erdős number describes the "collaborative distance" between a person and mathematician Paul Erdős, as measured by authorship of mathematical papers.The same principle has been proposed for other eminent persons in other fields.- Overview :...
—which measures the "collaborative distance" in authoring mathematical papers between that person and Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős
Paul Erdos
Paul Erdős was a Hungarian mathematician. Erdős published more papers than any other mathematician in history, working with hundreds of collaborators. He worked on problems in combinatorics, graph theory, number theory, classical analysis, approximation theory, set theory, and probability theory...
—and one's Bacon number—which represents the number of links, through roles in films, by which the individual is separated from American actor Kevin Bacon
Kevin Bacon
Kevin Norwood Bacon is an American film and theater actor whose notable roles include Animal House, Diner, Footloose, Flatliners, Wild Things, A Few Good Men, JFK, Apollo 13, Mystic River, The Woodsman, Trapped, Friday the 13th, Hollow Man, Tremors, Death Sentence, Frost/Nixon, Crazy, Stupid, Love....
. The lower the number, the closer a person is to Erdős and Bacon, and this reflects a small world phenomenon in academia and entertainment.
The idea of Erdős–Bacon numbers has been written about by Simon Singh
Simon Singh
Simon Lehna Singh, MBE is a British author who has specialised in writing about mathematical and scientific topics in an accessible manner....
in the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
media and Benjamin Rosenbaum
Benjamin Rosenbaum
Benjamin Rosenbaum is an American science fiction, fantasy, and literary fiction writer and computer programmer, whose stories have been finalists for the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Award, the BSFA award, and the World Fantasy Award...
, among others, in the blogosphere
Blogosphere
The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community or as a social network in which everyday authors can publish their opinions...
. However, the idea had appeared in print before, notably in 1998, when it was mentioned in response to Daniel Kleitman
Daniel Kleitman
Daniel J. Kleitman is a professor of applied mathematics at MIT. His research interests include combinatorics, graph theory, genomics, and operations research.- Biography :...
appearing in Good Will Hunting
Good Will Hunting
Good Will Hunting is a 1997 drama film directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Ben Affleck, Minnie Driver, and Stellan Skarsgård...
.
Roles as self, as a cameo appearance
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
, or as an extra
Extra (actor)
A background actor or extra is a performer in a film, television show, stage, musical, opera or ballet production, who appears in a nonspeaking, nonsinging or nondancing capacity, usually in the background...
are often included for the Bacon component. The Erdős criterion technically refers to collaboration on mathematical papers, but it is often relaxed to include general research articles for the Erdős–Bacon number.
In general, to have a defined Erdős–Bacon number, it is necessary (but not sufficient) for one to have both appeared in a film and co-authored an academic paper.
Notable scientists with defined Erdős–Bacon numbers include popular astronomer
Astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
Carl Sagan
Carl Sagan
Carl Edward Sagan was an American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, science popularizer and science communicator in astronomy and natural sciences. He published more than 600 scientific papers and articles and was author, co-author or editor of more than 20 books...
and theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking
Stephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA is an English theoretical physicist and cosmologist, whose scientific books and public appearances have made him an academic celebrity...
. One of the best-known actors with a number is actress Natalie Portman
Natalie Portman
Natalie Hershlag , better known by her stage name Natalie Portman, is an actress with dual American and Israeli citizenship. Her first role was as an orphan taken in by a hitman in the 1994 French action film Léon, but major success came when she was cast as Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars prequel...
, whose authorship of a psychology paper during her Harvard degree in psychology earned her an Erdős–Bacon number of 6 (see table below).
Scientists
Erdős himself has an Erdős-Bacon number of three. His Erdős number is zero by definition. His Bacon number is three since he appears in "N is a Number: A Portrait of Paul Erdős" (1993) with Gene Patterson who was in "Box of Moon Light" (1996) with Sam Rockwell who was in "Frost/Nixon" (2008) with Kevin Bacon.Daniel Kleitman
Daniel Kleitman
Daniel J. Kleitman is a professor of applied mathematics at MIT. His research interests include combinatorics, graph theory, genomics, and operations research.- Biography :...
, a mathematician at MIT, was an advisor for the movie Good Will Hunting
Good Will Hunting
Good Will Hunting is a 1997 drama film directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Ben Affleck, Minnie Driver, and Stellan Skarsgård...
and appeared briefly as an uncredited extra. Minnie Driver
Minnie Driver
Minnie Driver is an English actress and singer-songwriter. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the 1997 film Good Will Hunting, as well as for an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe for her work in the television series The Riches.- Early life...
, who appeared in that movie, also appeared in Sleepers
Sleepers (film)
Sleepers is a 1996 legal drama film written, produced, and directed by Barry Levinson, and based on Lorenzo Carcaterra's 1995 novel of the same name.-Plot:...
with Kevin Bacon; as such, Kleitman's Bacon number is 2. He also coauthored a paper with Erdős. This gives him an Erdős–Bacon number of 3.
For a time, the person with the lowest known Erdős–Bacon number was Dave Bayer
Dave Bayer
Dave Bayer is an American mathematician. He is currently a professor of mathematics at Barnard College, Columbia University. He was math consultant for the film A Beautiful Mind, and also acted in it as one of the "Pen Ceremony" professors. He is also one of few people to have both an Erdős number...
, mathematical consultant to A Beautiful Mind
A Beautiful Mind (film)
A Beautiful Mind is a 2001 American drama film based on the life of John Nash, a Nobel Laureate in Economics. The film was directed by Ron Howard and written by Akiva Goldsman. It was inspired by a bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-nominated 1998 book of the same name by Sylvia Nasar...
who was on screen in a minor role in the movie. Rance Howard
Rance Howard
Rance Howard is an American actor who has starred in film and on television.-Life and career:Howard was born Harold Rance Beckenholdt in Oklahoma, the son of Ethel Cleo and Engel Beckenholdt, a farmer. He changed his name to "Rance Howard" when he became an actor. He married Jean Speegle Howard...
was also in A Beautiful Mind
A Beautiful Mind (film)
A Beautiful Mind is a 2001 American drama film based on the life of John Nash, a Nobel Laureate in Economics. The film was directed by Ron Howard and written by Akiva Goldsman. It was inspired by a bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-nominated 1998 book of the same name by Sylvia Nasar...
and in Apollo 13
Apollo 13 (film)
Apollo 13 is a 1995 American drama film directed by Ron Howard. The film stars Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise, Kathleen Quinlan and Ed Harris. The screenplay by William Broyles, Jr...
with Kevin Bacon to give Bayer a Bacon number of 2. Bayer wrote a paper with Persi Diaconis
Persi Diaconis
Persi Warren Diaconis is an American mathematician and former professional magician. He is the Mary V. Sunseri Professor of Statistics and Mathematics at Stanford University....
, who has an Erdős number of 1 due to a jointly authored 1977 Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
technical report
Technical report
A technical report is a document that describes the process, progress, or results of technical or scientific research or the state of a technical or scientific research problem. It might also include recommendations and conclusions of the research...
, later published in a 2004 compilation. As such, Bayer's Erdős–Bacon number is 4. Diaconis himself has an Erdős–Bacon number of 5, and Bacon number of 4. He was in the documentary The Math Life with Freeman Dyson
Freeman Dyson
Freeman John Dyson FRS is a British-born American theoretical physicist and mathematician, famous for his work in quantum field theory, solid-state physics, astronomy and nuclear engineering. Dyson is a member of the Board of Sponsors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists...
, who was in A Glorious Accident with Oliver Sacks
Oliver Sacks
Oliver Wolf Sacks, CBE , is a British neurologist and psychologist residing in New York City. He is a professor of neurology and psychiatry at Columbia University, where he also holds the position of Columbia Artist...
. Sacks has a Bacon number of 2.
Bruce Reznick, a professor at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has an Erdős number of 1 and a Bacon number (by virtue of being an extra in Pretty Maids All in a Row
Pretty Maids All in a Row
Pretty Maids All in a Row is an American mystery film starring Rock Hudson and Angie Dickinson that is part dark comedy, part murder mystery. It was released on April 28, 1971, directed by Roger Vadim, and written and produced by Gene Roddenberry based on a novel by Francis Pollini.Pretty Maids was...
with Roddy McDowall) of 2, and thus has an Erdős–Bacon number of 3.
Mike Hirschhorn, a pure mathematician at UNSW in Australia, also counts an Erdős–Bacon number of 4. He is heard giving a mathematics lecture in the background at the beginning of the movie The Bank (2001), which stars Anthony La Paglia: La Paglia was in the movie He Said, She Said(1991) with Bacon. This gives Hirschhorn a Bacon number of 2. Hirschhorn was well acquainted with Erdős. He met Erdős in Rehovot in 1966, Sydney in 1969 and on several later occasions, including 1975, when Erdős entertained what he termed the Hirschhorn "epsilons" Jeremy and Andrew. They both now have Erdős number 3. Mike Hirschhorn’s Erdős number was nearly 1: Erdős was responsible for the crucial idea in Hirschhorn’s 1981 paper Infinitely many identities of Kolberg type but declined credit. However Hirschhorn has an Erdős number of 2 through both J.H. Loxton and M.V. Subbarao. His total Erdős–Bacon is therefore 2+2 = 4.
Robin E. Harte, former professor of mathematics at University College, Cork, Ireland, has an acting role unrelated to his mathematical life in Tony Bill's "Oliver Twist"(1997), where he appears slumped in the corner of a gaol cell accompanied (or not) by a rat. In this scene, he is directed to raise his head to observe the new inmate of his prison cell, Oliver Twist.
Elijah Wood, who appeared with Kevin Bacon in "Beyond all boundaries"(2009), plays the Artful Dodger in the film, giving Professor Harte a Bacon number of 2. Professor Harte has co-authored with Mostafa Mbekhta, who has co-authored with Endre Makai Jr, who has co-authored with Paul Erdős, so has an Erdős number of 3. Robin Harte's Erdős-Bacon number is 5.
Astronomer
Astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
Carl Sagan
Carl Sagan
Carl Edward Sagan was an American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, science popularizer and science communicator in astronomy and natural sciences. He published more than 600 scientific papers and articles and was author, co-author or editor of more than 20 books...
has an Erdős number of no more than 4 via Steven J. Ostro
Steven J. Ostro
Steven J. Ostro was an American scientist specializing in Radar Astronomy. He worked at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Ostro led radar observations of numerous asteroids, as well as the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, Saturn's rings, and Mars and its satellites...
and a Bacon number of 3, for a total of 7. Physicist
Physicist
A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
Richard Feynman
Richard Feynman
Richard Phillips Feynman was an American physicist known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, as well as in particle physics...
has an Erdős number of 3 and a Bacon number of 3, having appeared in the film Anti-Clock
Anti-Clock
Anti-Clock is a 1979 film written and directed by Jane Arden, and co-directed by Jack Bond. The film, which stars Arden's son Sebastian Saville, was shot on film and video in colour and black and white sequences...
alongside Tony Tang
Tony Tang
Tony Tang is a British screen actor, best known for his recurring role as the Chinese Waiter in the BBC comedy series Little Britain, written by and starring Matt Lucas and David Walliams. Tang's other television work includes appearances in Dr...
. Physicist
Physicist
A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
H. David Politzer has an Erdős number of 4 and a Bacon number of 2.
Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking
Stephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA is an English theoretical physicist and cosmologist, whose scientific books and public appearances have made him an academic celebrity...
has an Erdős number of 4 and, if one can include any of his television guest roles as himself in The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
, Futurama
Futurama
Futurama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of a late 20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J...
, and Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as part of the Star Trek franchise. Roddenberry, Rick Berman, and Michael Piller served as executive producers at different times throughout the production...
, a Bacon number of 3. The mathematician Alex Schuster, a professor at San Francisco State University, has an Erdős number of 3. He also appeared in a single episode of the late 1980s Canadian television program ENG as an ice cream salesman. The show starred Victor Garber
Victor Garber
Victor Joseph Garber is a Canadian film, stage and television actor and singer. Garber is known for playing Jesus in Godspell, Jack Bristow in the television series Alias, Max in Lend Me a Tenor, and Thomas Andrews in James Cameron's Titanic.-Early life:Born in London, Ontario, Canada, Garber is...
, who has a Bacon number of 2. Schuster thus has a Bacon number of 3 and an Erdős–Bacon number of 6.
Astrophysicist and cosmologist Ravi Sheth at the University of Pennsylvania also has an Erdős–Bacon number of at most 6. His Erdős number of 3 comes through a paper with Max Tegmark
Max Tegmark
Max Tegmark is a Swedish-American cosmologist. Tegmark is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and belongs to the scientific directorate of the Foundational Questions Institute.-Early life:...
, who wrote a paper with his father, Harold S. Shapiro
Harold S. Shapiro
Harold Seymour Shapiro is a professor emeritus of mathematics at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, best...
, who wrote a paper with Erdős. He acquired a Bacon number of 3 by starring in the title role of the 1984 British TV film Kim
Kim (TV film)
Kim is a 1984 British television film directed by John Howard Davies and based on Rudyard Kipling's novel Kim. The film stars Peter O'Toole, Bryan Brown, John Rhys-Davies, Nadira, Jalal Agha, Raj Kapoor and Ravi Sheth in the title role.-Plot:...
, which also starred Peter O'Toole
Peter O'Toole
Peter Seamus Lorcan O'Toole is an Irish actor of stage and screen. O'Toole achieved stardom in 1962 playing T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia, and then went on to become a highly-honoured film and stage actor. He has been nominated for eight Academy Awards, and holds the record for most...
, who has a Bacon number of 2. Karl Schaffer is a dancer/choreographer who appeared as a "Killer Klown" in the 1988 film Killer Klowns from Outer Space
Killer Klowns from Outer Space
Killer Klowns From Outer Space is a 1988 American comedy horror movie, made by The Chiodo Brothers and starring Grant Cramer. It is the only Chiodo Brothers' directed and written film – they have worked in many other projects in other roles, such as producing and visual effects...
, and is also a mathematician at De Anza College
De Anza College
De Anza College is a community college located in Cupertino, California. It was founded in 1967 on the site of the Beaulieu Winery and is named after the Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza...
, with a Bacon number of 2 and an Erdős number of 3, for a sum of 5.
Mathematics professor Laura DeMarco at UIC has an Erdős number of 3 (through Rumely and Pomerance
Carl Pomerance
Carl Bernard Pomerance is a well-known number theorist. He attended college at Brown University and later received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1972 with a dissertation proving that any odd perfect number has at least 7 distinct prime factors. He immediately joined the faculty at the...
)
and appeared briefly in Proof with Gwyneth Paltrow
Gwyneth Paltrow
Gwyneth Kate Paltrow is an American actress and singer. She made her acting debut on stage in 1990 and started appearing in films in 1991. After appearing in several films throughout the decade, Paltrow gained early notice for her work in films such as Se7en and Emma...
which gives her a Bacon number of 3 (through Kelly Preston
Kelly Preston
Kelly Preston is an American actress and former model.- Early years :Preston was born Kelly Kamalelehua Smith in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her mother, Linda, was an administrator of a mental health center, and her father, who worked for an agricultural firm, drowned when Preston was three years old...
)
and hence an Erdős–Bacon number of 6. The documentary Julia Robinson and Hilbert's Tenth Problem, with actress Danica McKellar
Danica McKellar
Danica Mae McKellar is an American actress, academic, and education advocate. She is best known for her role as Winnie Cooper in the television show The Wonder Years, and later as author of the three The New York Times bestsellers, Math Doesn't Suck, Kiss My Math, and Hot X: Algebra Exposed, which...
as narrator,
gave a Bacon number of 3 to several mathematicians appearing in the film as themselves, including
Lenore Blum
Lenore Blum
Lenore Blum is a distinguished professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon. She received her Ph.D. in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1968. Her dissertation was on Generalized Algebraic Structures and her advisor was Gerald Sacks...
(4+3=7), Martin Davis
Martin Davis
Martin David Davis, is an American mathematician, known for his work on Hilbert's tenth problem . He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1950, where his adviser was Alonzo Church . He is Professor Emeritus at New York University. He is the co-inventor of the Davis-Putnam and the DPLL...
(3+3=6), Jan Denef
Jan Denef
Jan Denef is a Belgian mathematician. He is Full Professor of Mathematics at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.He is a specialist of model theory, number theory and algebraic geometry. He is well known for his early work on Hilbert's tenth problemand for developing the theory of motivic...
(3+3=6), Kirsten Eisenträger (2+3=5), Solomon Feferman
Solomon Feferman
Solomon Feferman is an American philosopher and mathematician with major works in mathematical logic.He was born in New York City, New York, and received his Ph.D. in 1957 from the University of California, Berkeley under Alfred Tarski...
(3+3=6), Steven Givant (2+3=5), Yuri Matiyasevich
Yuri Matiyasevich
Yuri Vladimirovich Matiyasevich, is a Russian mathematician and computer scientist. He is best known for his negative solution of Hilbert's tenth problem, presented in his doctoral thesis, at LOMI .- Biography :* In 1962-1963 studied at Saint Petersburg Lyceum 239...
(2+3=5), Bjorn Poonen
Bjorn Poonen
Bjorn Mikhail Poonen is a mathematician, four-time Putnam Competition winner and currently the Claude Shannon Professor of Mathematics at MIT.His research is primarily in number theory and algebraic geometry, but he has occasionally published in other subjects such as probability and computer...
(2+3=5), Hilary Putnam
Hilary Putnam
Hilary Whitehall Putnam is an American philosopher, mathematician and computer scientist, who has been a central figure in analytic philosophy since the 1960s, especially in philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, philosophy of mathematics, and philosophy of science...
(3+3=6), Dana Scott
Dana Scott
Dana Stewart Scott is the emeritus Hillman University Professor of Computer Science, Philosophy, and Mathematical Logic at Carnegie Mellon University; he is now retired and lives in Berkeley, California...
(2+3=5), and Alexandra Shlapentokh (2+3=5).
Mathematician and Economics Nobel laureate John Nash, better known in popular culture as the subject of the unauthorized biography A Beautiful Mind
A Beautiful Mind (book)
A Beautiful Mind is an unauthorized biography of Nobel Prize-winning economist and mathematician John Forbes Nash, Jr. by Sylvia Nasar, professor of journalism at Columbia University...
and the Academy Award-winning film adaptation
A Beautiful Mind (film)
A Beautiful Mind is a 2001 American drama film based on the life of John Nash, a Nobel Laureate in Economics. The film was directed by Ron Howard and written by Akiva Goldsman. It was inspired by a bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-nominated 1998 book of the same name by Sylvia Nasar...
has an Erdős number of 4 and a Bacon number of 2, resulting in an Bacon-Erdős number of 6.
Electrical engineer Robert J. Marks II
Robert J. Marks II
Robert Jackson Marks II is a Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Baylor University and proponent of intelligent design. From 1977 to 2003, he was on the faculty of the University of Washington in Seattle...
appeared in Ben Stein
Ben Stein
Benjamin Jeremy "Ben" Stein is an American actor, writer, lawyer, and commentator on political and economic issues. He attained early success as a speechwriter for American presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford...
's movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is a 2008 documentary film, directed by Nathan Frankowski and hosted by Ben Stein. The film contends that the mainstream science establishment suppresses academics who believe they see evidence of intelligent design in nature and who criticize evidence supporting...
. Stein appeared with Bacon in Planes, Trains and Automobiles giving Marks a Bacon number of two. Marks has published with Donald C. Wunch II who published with Frank Harary who has coauthored with Erdős. Marks therefore has an Erdős number of three and Erdős–Bacon number of five. Philosopher and Mathematician William A. Dembski
William A. Dembski
William Albert "Bill" Dembski is an American proponent of intelligent design, well known for promoting the concept of specified complexity...
also appeared in Expelled
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is a 2008 documentary film, directed by Nathan Frankowski and hosted by Ben Stein. The film contends that the mainstream science establishment suppresses academics who believe they see evidence of intelligent design in nature and who criticize evidence supporting...
. He has published with Marks and therefore has a Erdős–Bacon number of six.
Materials Scientist Tim Foecke
Tim Foecke
Timothy Foecke is an American metallurgist, Deputy Chief of the Metallurgy Division, Leader of the Materials Performance Group, and Director of the NIST Center for Automotive Lightweighting at the National Institute of Standards and Technology .- Biography :Foecke received a bachelor's degree...
has a Bacon Number of 2 (Martin Sheen
Martin Sheen
Ramón Gerardo Antonio Estévez , better known by his stage name Martin Sheen, is an American film actor best known for his performances in the films Badlands and Apocalypse Now , and in the television series The West Wing from 1999 to 2006.He is considered one of the best actors never to be...
having been the narrator of the Discovery Channel documentary Foecke participated in entitled "Titanic-Anatomy of a Disaster", and co-starred in the movie "JFK" with Kevin Bacon
Kevin Bacon
Kevin Norwood Bacon is an American film and theater actor whose notable roles include Animal House, Diner, Footloose, Flatliners, Wild Things, A Few Good Men, JFK, Apollo 13, Mystic River, The Woodsman, Trapped, Friday the 13th, Hollow Man, Tremors, Death Sentence, Frost/Nixon, Crazy, Stupid, Love....
), and an Erdos Number
Erdos number
The Erdős number describes the "collaborative distance" between a person and mathematician Paul Erdős, as measured by authorship of mathematical papers.The same principle has been proposed for other eminent persons in other fields.- Overview :...
of 4 (via Robb Thomson to Peter Bergmann To Ernst Straus to Paul Erdos
Paul Erdos
Paul Erdős was a Hungarian mathematician. Erdős published more papers than any other mathematician in history, working with hundreds of collaborators. He worked on problems in combinatorics, graph theory, number theory, classical analysis, approximation theory, set theory, and probability theory...
), giving him an Erdős–Bacon number of 6.
Linguist and language commentator Geoff Nunberg has a Bacon Number of 3 by several routes. His website cites the line through his appearance in the documentary F*ck with Pat Boone
Pat Boone
Charles Eugene "Pat" Boone is an American singer, actor and writer who has been a successful pop singer in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s. He covered black artists' songs and sold more copies than his black counterparts...
, who was in The Cross and the Switchblade
The Cross and the Switchblade
The Cross and the Switchblade is a book written in 1963 by pastor David Wilkerson with John and Elizabeth Sherrill. It tells the true story of Wilkerson's first five years in New York City, where he ministered to disillusioned youth, encouraging them to turn away from the drugs and gang violence...
(1970) with Erik Estrada
Erik Estrada
Henry Enrique "Erik" Estrada is an American police officer and actor, known for his co-starring lead role in the 1977–1983 United States police television series CHiPs...
, who was in We Married Margo
We Married Margo
We Married Margo is a 2000 American independent comedy film directed by J. David Shapiro and co-written by Shapiro and William Dozier. The film tells a story of two friends who were married to the same woman and is loosely based on real events in that Shapiro and Dozier actually met after dating...
(2000) with Kevin Bacon
Kevin Bacon
Kevin Norwood Bacon is an American film and theater actor whose notable roles include Animal House, Diner, Footloose, Flatliners, Wild Things, A Few Good Men, JFK, Apollo 13, Mystic River, The Woodsman, Trapped, Friday the 13th, Hollow Man, Tremors, Death Sentence, Frost/Nixon, Crazy, Stupid, Love....
. (An alternate calculation through Dennis Miller
Dennis Miller
Dennis Miller is an American stand-up comedian, political commentator, actor, sports commentator, and television and radio personality. He is known for his critical assessments laced with pop culture references...
via The Joy of Lex (2008) is also possible.) He has an Erdős Number
Erdos number
The Erdős number describes the "collaborative distance" between a person and mathematician Paul Erdős, as measured by authorship of mathematical papers.The same principle has been proposed for other eminent persons in other fields.- Overview :...
of 4, as a co-author with Jan Pedersen, who co-authored with John Tukey
John Tukey
John Wilder Tukey ForMemRS was an American statistician.- Biography :Tukey was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1915, and obtained a B.A. in 1936 and M.Sc. in 1937, in chemistry, from Brown University, before moving to Princeton University where he received a Ph.D...
, who is listed in the Erdős number Project, with a number 2 two ways, having co-authored with Arthur Harold Stone
Arthur Harold Stone
Arthur Harold Stone was a British mathematician born in London, who worked mostly in topology. His wife was American mathematician Dorothy Maharam...
and with Ralph Philip Boas, Jr., both of whom co-authored with Paul Erdős
Paul Erdos
Paul Erdős was a Hungarian mathematician. Erdős published more papers than any other mathematician in history, working with hundreds of collaborators. He worked on problems in combinatorics, graph theory, number theory, classical analysis, approximation theory, set theory, and probability theory...
. This gives him an Erdős–Bacon number of 7.
Actors
Former NCAA gymnastics championNCAA Women's Gymnastics championship
The NCAA introduced Women's Gymnastics as a championship sport in 1982. Since then, only four universities have claimed the overall Division I championship; Division II competition was discontinued in 1987. During the early years of competition, the University of Utah under the leadership of head...
Kiralee Hayashi may be the professional actress with the lowest Erdős number (3), having co-written a peer-reviewed mathematics paper on Riemannian manifold
Riemannian manifold
In Riemannian geometry and the differential geometry of surfaces, a Riemannian manifold or Riemannian space is a real differentiable manifold M in which each tangent space is equipped with an inner product g, a Riemannian metric, which varies smoothly from point to point...
s with Fields medalist Shing-Tung Yau
Shing-Tung Yau
Shing-Tung Yau is a Chinese American mathematician working in differential geometry. He was born in Shantou, Guangdong Province, China into a family of scholars from Jiaoling, Guangdong Province....
, and having a Bacon number of 2, giving her an Erdős–Bacon number of 5.
Danica McKellar
Danica McKellar
Danica Mae McKellar is an American actress, academic, and education advocate. She is best known for her role as Winnie Cooper in the television show The Wonder Years, and later as author of the three The New York Times bestsellers, Math Doesn't Suck, Kiss My Math, and Hot X: Algebra Exposed, which...
, most famous for her role as Winnie Cooper in The Wonder Years
The Wonder Years
The Wonder Years is an American television comedy-drama created by Carol Black and Neal Marlens. It ran for six seasons on ABC from 1988 through 1993. The pilot aired on January 31, 1988 after ABC's coverage of Super Bowl XXII....
, has an Erdős–Bacon number of 6, having coauthored a mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
paper published while an undergraduate at UCLA. Her paper gives her an Erdős number of 4, and a Bacon number of 2, both of them having worked with Margaret Easley
Margaret Easley
Margaret Easley is an American actress. She has worked in the theater, television and movies and is in demand for voice-overs and commercials.-Filmography:* The Closer — Joan Marku...
.
US actress Natalie Portman
Natalie Portman
Natalie Hershlag , better known by her stage name Natalie Portman, is an actress with dual American and Israeli citizenship. Her first role was as an orphan taken in by a hitman in the 1994 French action film Léon, but major success came when she was cast as Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars prequel...
has an Erdős–Bacon number of 6. She collaborated (using her birth name, Natalie Hershlag) with Abigail A. Baird, who has a collaboration path leading to Joseph Gillis, who has an Erdős number of 1. Bacon and Portman both appear in New York, I Love You
New York, I Love You
New York, I Love You is a 2009 romance film released in the United States on October 16, 2009. From the producer of Paris, je t'aime, it stars an ensemble cast, among them Bradley Cooper, Shia LaBeouf, Natalie Portman, Anton Yelchin, Hayden Christensen, Orlando Bloom, Irrfan Khan, Rachel Bilson,...
, giving Portman a Bacon number of 1 and an Erdős number of 5.
Mayim Bialik
Mayim Bialik
Mayim Hoya Bialik is an American actress who also holds a PhD in neuroscience.Her most notable TV roles have been as Blossom Russo on NBC's Blossom and as Amy Farrah Fowler on CBS's The Big Bang Theory.-Early life:...
has an Erdős–Bacon number of at most 7, having worked on a book chapter and having a 5 point Erdős path connecting to Shing-Tung Yau
Shing-Tung Yau
Shing-Tung Yau is a Chinese American mathematician working in differential geometry. He was born in Shantou, Guangdong Province, China into a family of scholars from Jiaoling, Guangdong Province....
. Her Bacon number is 2.
British actor Colin Firth
Colin Firth
SirColin Andrew Firth, CBE is a British film, television, and theatre actor. Firth gained wide public attention in the 1990s for his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice...
has an Erdős–Bacon number of 7. Firth is formally credited as co-author of a neuroscience paper, "Political Orientations Are Correlated with Brain Structure in Young Adults", after he suggested on BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
that such a study could be done. Another author of that paper, Geraint Rees
Geraint Rees
Geraint Rees FMedSci is Director of the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and a Professor of Cognitive Neurology and Wellcome Trust Senior Clinical Fellow at University College London.-Biography:...
, has an Erdős number of 5, which gives Firth an Erdős number of 6. Firth appeared with Kevin Bacon in Where the Truth Lies
Where the Truth Lies
Where the Truth Lies is a 2005 Canadian/British drama film, written and directed by Atom Egoyan. It stars Kevin Bacon, Colin Firth, and Alison Lohman, and is based on the 2003 novel of the same name by Rupert Holmes.-Plot:...
, so his Bacon number is 1.
The movie What the Bleep Do We Know!?
What the Bleep Do We Know!?
What the Bleep Do We Know!? is a 2004 film that combines documentary-style interviews, computer-animated graphics, and a narrative that describes the spiritual connection between quantum physics and consciousness...
, which featured both persons published in the sciences and an actress with Bacon number 2 (Academy Award winner Marlee Matlin
Marlee Matlin
Marlee Bethany Matlin is an American actress. She is the only deaf actress to win the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, which she won for Children of a Lesser God. Her work in film and television has resulted in a Golden Globe award, with two additional nominations, and four Emmy...
), gave Erdős–Bacon numbers to David Albert
David Albert
David Z Albert, Ph.D., is Frederick E. Woodbridge Professor of Philosophy and Director of the M.A. Program in The Philosophical Foundations of Physics at Columbia University in New York. He received his B.S. in physics from Columbia College and his doctorate in theoretical physics from The...
(Erdős 4,
Erdős–Bacon 7), Fred Alan Wolf
Fred Alan Wolf
Fred Alan Wolf is an American theoretical physicist specializing in quantum physics and the relationship between physics and consciousness. He is a former physics professor at San Diego State University, and more recently has helped to popularize science on the Discovery Channel...
(Erdős 5, Erdős–Bacon 8), and Natural Law Party
Natural Law Party
The Natural Law Party was a transnational party based on the teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. It was active in up to 74 countries, and ran candidates in at least ten. Founded in 1992, it was mostly disbanded in 2004 but continues in India and in some U.S. states.The NLP viewed "natural law" as...
Presidential
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Candidate John Hagelin
John Hagelin
John Samuel Hagelin is an American particle physicist, three-time candidate of the Natural Law Party for President of the United States , and the director of the Transcendental Meditation movement for the US....
(Erdős 5 through frequent collaborator Dimitri Nanopoulos
Dimitri Nanopoulos
Dimitri Nanopoulos is a Greek physicist. He is one of the most regularly cited researchers in the world, cited more than 35,800 times over across a number of separate branches of science....
, Erdős–Bacon 8), all appearing as themselves.
Others
Hank Aaron, a baseballBaseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
player, is sometimes also considered to have an Erdős–Bacon number of 3, as he and Erdős both autographed the same baseball (for which he is jokingly referred to as having Erdős number of 1), and he also appeared in Summer Catch
Summer Catch
Summer Catch is a 2001 romantic comedy film starring Freddie Prinze Jr., Jessica Biel, and Matthew Lillard. The story takes place on Cape Cod, but the majority of the film was shot in Southport, North Carolina.-Plot:...
with Susan Gardner, who was in In The Cut
In the Cut
In the Cut is a 2003 American erotic thriller and mystery film, written and directed by Jane Campion and starring Meg Ryan, Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Campion's screenplay is an adaption of the novel of the same name by Susanna Moore...
with Bacon. Charles Seife
Charles Seife
Charles Seife is an American author, journalist and professor.His first published book was Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea. He had written within the scientific community for years before this, having done freelance work for New Scientist, Scientific American, The Economist, Science, Wired...
, an author and journalist, co-authored a paper with Frank Moss (Erdős number 3) and appeared in a Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
special with Brian Greene (Bacon number 2) for an Erdős–Bacon number of 7.
Table
For people listed in the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database
Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
who are connected to Kevin Bacon, the average Bacon number is 2.957. For mathematicians listed in the American Mathematical Society's MR Collaboration Distance search engine who are connected to Erdős, the average Erdős number is 4.65. There currently exists no exhaustive list of people with defined Erdős–Bacon numbers, but a select group is listed below.
| Name | Erdős number | Bacon number | Erdős–Bacon number |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 3(b)(k) | 7(b) | |
| 2(c) | 2(d)(k) | 4(c,d) | |
| 4 | 2 | 6 | |
| 5 | 2 | 7 | |
| 4 | 3(b)(k) | 7(b) | |
| 3 | 3(b)(k) | 6(b) | |
| 4 | 2(b)(k) | 6 | |
| 3 | 3(b)(k) | 6(b) | |
| 1(c) | 4(b,e)(k) | 5(b,c,e) | |
| 6 | 2(k) | 8(k) | |
| 0 | 3 | 3 | |
| 3 | 3(b)(k) | 6(b) | |
| 3 | 3 | 6 | |
| 6(k) | 1(k) | 7 | |
| 4 | 2 | 6 | |
| 4 | 2(e) | 6(e) | |
| 5 | 3(b)(k) | 8(b) | |
| 4 | 3(f) | 7(f) | |
| 5 | 1 (j) | 6 | |
| 2 | 2(d)(k) | 4(d) | |
| 5 | 2 | 7 | |
| 1 | 2(d)(k) | 3(d) | |
| 5 | 3 | 8 | |
| 3 | 2(b)(k) | 5 | |
| 2 | 3(b)(k) | 5(b) | |
| 4 | 3 | 7 | |
| 4 | 2 | 6 | |
| 4 | 2 | 6 | |
| 3 | 2 | 5 | |
| 2 | 3(b)(k) | 5(b) | |
| (Hershlag) | 5 | 1(k) | 6 |
| 3 | 3(b)(k) | 6(b) | |
| 4 | 3(b) | 7 | |
| 2 | 3(b)(k) | 5(b) | |
| 4 | 3(b) | 7 | |
| 4 | 2 | 6 | |
| 3 | 2 | 5 | |
| 4 | 2(e) | 6(e) | |
| 3 | 3 | 6 | |
| 5 | 3(b)(k) | 8(b) |
Notes:
- (b) Includes role as self
- (c) Includes technical report posthumously published in a book (otherwise Erdős number 3, Erdős–Bacon number 5)
- (d) Includes role as extra
- (e) Includes documentary credit
- (f) Includes television roles as self in The SimpsonsThe SimpsonsThe Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
, FuturamaFuturamaFuturama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of a late 20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J...
, and Star Trek: The Next GenerationStar Trek: The Next GenerationStar Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as part of the Star Trek franchise. Roddenberry, Rick Berman, and Michael Piller served as executive producers at different times throughout the production... - (g) Includes nonacademic paper
- (h) Includes archival footage
- (i) Includes Academy AwardsAcademy AwardsAn Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
ceremony - (j) Includes role as production assistant
- (k) See discussion above.