Guy Reams (00:00.962)
This is day 157, the Airdos Bacon Number.
Winning a Nobel Prize is considered by some to be a major life achievement. If you were to win this award in economics, for example, it would be said that during your career you had a significant influence on the study of economics. However, even more prestigious is the Erdos-Bacon number. You might not know what this number is. Let me explain briefly. You probably recall a fun social game called The Seven Degrees of Kevin Bacon?
The idea is that every actor or actress is separated by Mr. Bacon by one or more degrees, usually not exceeding seven. For example, if you co-started in a film with Bacon, then you would have a Bacon number of one. If you were in a film with someone who had previously been in a film with Bacon, then you would have a Bacon number of two. Usually, most people will have a Bacon number of seven degrees or less. However, there is another degrees equation that is popular in the mathematics field.
This is the degrees from which you are separated from mathematician Paul Erdos. If you co-authored a publication with Mr. Erdos, then you would have an Erdos number of 1. If you co-authored a publication with someone who had also previously co-authored a publication with Mr. Erdos, then you would have an Erdos number of 2. This continues and produces the same result as the Bacon effect. Now, if you had an Erdos-Bacon number that is lower than
Now, if you have an Erdos-Bacon number that is lower, then you are indeed quite the accomplished person. This means that you are a person that has made a major peer-reviewed journal publication and starred in a major motion picture. There are very few people in this world that have Erdos-Bacon numbers at all, and very few that have a low Erdos-Bacon number. It is fun to research those who do have such a number.
Guy Reams (02:00.096)
And usually when you do, you will uncover some extremely interesting people. One such is the famous economist Richard Thaler. He's currently 79 years old. He's appeared in movies and has had many publications due to his research in economics. He has an Erdos-Bacon number of five. Quite astoundingly, actually, is probably a tad more prestigious than his Nobel Prize award that he was given in 2017.
Doing this exercise is a fun way to learn a lot of new things. Noodling down the path of the Erdos-Bacon number is what led me to Thaler's theories on the hot hand fallacy, the endowment effect, and loss aversion. These are all consumer buying behaviors and they are indeed fascinating. Have you ever noticed that you only become aware of the value of something when you lose it? Well, Mr. Thaler encapsulated that into a theory of economics and published it.
This kind of relatable economics turning complicated math and economic theory into human understanding is what made his brand of analysis unique. Because he made this so accessible, he was tapped by motion picture producers to play roles in movies. For example, he has a fun dialogue with Selena Gomez in the movie The Big Short. That movie is worth a look. You should check out a clip on YouTube of Selena Gomez and Thaler. It's quite funny.
Sorry, Ms. Gomez does not have an Erdos-Bacon number. She has a Bacon number, but I don't think she's made any major scientific publications in her career, at least yet. Interestingly enough, there are some famous people that do have such a number, such as Bill Gates, Erdos-Bacon number four, and Stephen Hawking, Erdos-Bacon number six. I was surprised to discover that Colin Firth has a Erdos-Bacon number six.
Mr. Firth, believe it or not, was the co-author of a rather interesting academic paper on political neuroscience. The person with the lowest Erdos-Bacon number is Daniel Kleitman, who has a number of three. He was a mathematician from MIT and was co-authored with Erdos on several major publications. Do you remember all those cool math diagrams in the movie Good Will Hunting? Well, Mr. Kleitman was an extra in that film and was the math advisor that taught Robin Williams and Matt Damon
Guy Reams (04:27.372)
what math actually is. However, was not those two that mattered. It was Minnie Driver. She was in the film Sleepers with Kevin Bacon, and thus Klytman gets a one for his connection to Erdos and a two for his connection to Bacon through Driver. Add them together and Klytman has the lowest Erdos-Bacon number of three. Impressive indeed. So should this be your life ambition? A low Erdos-Bacon number? Probably not.
But it is certainly a great way to learn something new by following the trail.