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1.3.20

My Erdös Number ... and my (sort of) Bacon Number

(revised)

Academics are nerdy.  So, I calculated my so-called "Erdös Number", named after mathematician Paul Erdös--i.e. the number of "collaborative steps" between an academic and Erdös.  Someone who co-authored with Erdös has a number 1, while someone who co-authored with that author has a value of 2, etc., etc., etc.  Mine must be (at most) five (5).  Because ...
  • I edited and co-authored the 2006-edition of Gordon Tullock's "The Vote Motive", to which my distinguished friend, Prof. Michael Munger (Duke) contributed.  (I have also co-edited the journal Public Choice together with Munger as well as guest edited a special issue to which he contributed, and vice versa, and co-authored editorial announcements.) 
  • Munger has co-authored works with political scientist John H. Aldrich (Duke). 
  • Aldrich co-authored with political scientist Richard D. McKelvey (C.I.T.).
  • McKelvey co-authored with mathematician Craig A. Tovey (Georgia Tech).
  • Tovey co-authored with ... Paul Erdős
Unfortunately, given that I am not much of a movie star I have not been able to find a movie connection to Kevin Bacon and hence my "degrees of separation from Bacon".  This counts people who appeared on film with someone who has ..., etc.  The underlying hypothesis is that everyone in Hollywood is at most six degrees of separation away from Kevin Bacon.
However ...

So,  I seem to have an Erdös-Bacon Number of 9.  Sort of.


PS. Thanks to Professor Emeritus Jerrold W. Grossman, Dept. of Mathematics and Statistics at Oakland University.
PPS. And to Munger who found a shorter Erdös path than the one I first noticed.

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