Erdos, Bacon, Murphy, Einstein, etc. numbers
Erdos number
A persons
Erdős
Number is the "collaborative distance" to mathematician Paul
Erdős, as measured by authorship of (scientific) papers.
Ones Erdos number can be calculated using the
MathSciNet Erdos
number calculator.
My Erdos number is at least as low as 6, as I have published with
Jorgen Randrup, who has an Erdos number of 5. However, as Sheldon Lee
Glashow has an Erdos number of 2, I suspect that my minimal number is
4, given that someone in the BABAR or ATLAS collaboration almost
surely has published something with him. However, I have not found
concrete example, yet.
Bacon number
A persons
Bacon
Number is defined in the same way, as the Erdos number, however
linking people by movies.
My Bacon number is 3, as Kevin Bacon was in
X-Men: First Class
(2011) with Rade Serbedzija, who was in
Belma (1995) with
Morten Eisner, who was in
Kampen om den roede ko (1987) with
me!
Erdos-Bacon number
A person may have a finite
Erdős-Bacon
Number, which is defined as the addition of their Erdos and their
Bacon number. It requires that one has participated in a movie AND
published a scientific article, which is a bit rare.
Morphy number
In chess one uses the
Morphy Number,
named after chess player Paul Morphy (1837-1884). Due to the length of
time since his death, most professional players have a Morphy number
of 5. The former world champion Garry Kasparov has a Morphy number of
4, and as I have played Benjamin Koppel, who played him, mine is 6.