Erdős–Bacon number

A person's Erdős–Bacon number is the sum of their Erdős number—which measures the "collaborative distance" in authoring academic papers between that person and Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős—and their Bacon number—which represents the number of links, through roles in films, by which the person is separated from American actor Kevin Bacon.^[1]^[2] The lower the number, the closer a person is to Erdős and Bacon, which reflects a small world phenomenon in academia and entertainment.^[3]

To have a defined Erdős–Bacon number, it is necessary to have both appeared in a film and co-authored an academic paper, although this in and of itself is not sufficient as one's co-authors must have a known chain leading to Paul Erdős, and one's film must have actors eventually leading to Kevin Bacon.

Academic scientists

3

Mathematician Daniel Kleitman has an Erdős–Bacon number of 3. He co-authored papers with Erdős and has a Bacon number of 2 via his appearance as an extra in Good Will Hunting, with Minnie Driver; Driver and Bacon appeared together in Sleepers.^[4]^[5]^[6]

4

Physicist Nicholas Metropolis has an Erdős number of 2,^[7] and also a Bacon number of 2 via the Woody Allen film Husbands and Wives,^[8] giving him an Erdős–Bacon number of 4.

6

Metropolis and Richard Feynman both worked on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos Laboratory. Via Metropolis, Feynman has an Erdős number of 3 and, from having appeared in the film Anti-Clock alongside Tony Tang, Feynman also has a Bacon number of 3. Richard Feynman thus has an Erdős–Bacon number of 6.^[7]

Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking has an Erdős–Bacon number of 6: his Bacon number of 2 (via his appearance alongside John Cleese in Monty Python Live (Mostly), who acted alongside Kevin Bacon in The Big Picture) is lower than his Erdős number of 4.^[9]

Linguist Noam Chomsky has an Erdős number of 4,^[10] he also co-starred with Danny Glover in the 2005 documentary The Peace!, giving him a Bacon number of 2^[11] and combined Erdős–Bacon number of 6.

7

Scientist Carl Sagan has an Erdős–Bacon number of 7, from a Bacon number of 3 and an Erdős number of 4.^[12]

Actors

4

Canadian actor Albert M. Chan has Erdős–Bacon number of 4. He co-authored a peer-reviewed paper on orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing, giving him an Erdős number of 3.^[13]^[14]^[15] Chan appeared alongside Kevin Bacon in Patriots Day, giving him a Bacon number of 1.^[16]

6

American actress Danica McKellar, who played Winnie Cooper in The Wonder Years, has an Erdős–Bacon number of 6. While an undergraduate at the University of California, Los Angeles, McKellar coauthored a mathematics paper^[17] with Lincoln Chayes, who via his wife Jennifer Tour Chayes^[18] has an Erdős number of 3, giving McKellar one of 4. Having worked with Margaret Easley, McKellar has a Bacon number of 2.^[2]

British actor Colin Firth has an Erdős–Bacon number of 6. Firth is credited as co-author of a neuroscience paper, "Political Orientations Are Correlated with Brain Structure in Young Adults",^[19] after he suggested on BBC Radio 4 that such a study could be done.^[20] Another author of that paper, Geraint Rees, has an Erdős number of 4,^[21] which gives Firth an Erdős number of 5. Firth's Bacon number of 1 is due to his appearance in Where the Truth Lies.^[22]^[23]

7

Israeli-American actress Natalie Portman has an Erdős–Bacon number of 7.^[24] She collaborated (using her birth name, Natalie Hershlag) with Abigail A. Baird,^[25] who has a collaboration path^[26]^[27]^[28] leading to Joseph Gillis, who has an Erdős number of 1, giving Portman an Erdős number of 5.^[29] Portman appeared in A Powerful Noise Live (2009) with Sarah Michelle Gellar, who appeared in The Air I Breathe (2007) with Bacon, giving Portman a Bacon number of 2.^[30]

American actress Kristen Stewart has an Erdős–Bacon number of 7; she is credited as a co-author on an artificial intelligence paper that was written after a technique was used for her short film Come Swim, giving her an Erdős number of 5,^[31]^[32] and she co-starred with Michael Sheen in Twilight, who co-starred with Bacon in Frost/Nixon, giving her a Bacon number of 2.^[33]

Others

Sergey Brin has an Erdős number of 3 through papers with Jeffrey Ullman and Ronald Graham,^[34] and he has two cameos in the 2013 comedy The Internship,^[35] leading to a Bacon number of 2 via Rose Byrne^[36] and consequently an Erdős–Bacon number of 5.

Bill Gates has an Erdős number of 4^[37] and in 1987 he participated in a short mockumentary titled Citizen Steve about Steven Spielberg, where he co-starred with Whoopi Goldberg, giving him a Bacon number of 2^[38] and consequently an Erdős–Bacon number of 6.

Table

Name	Erdős number	Bacon number	Erdős–Bacon number
Mayim Bialik	5	2	7^[39]
Brian Cox	7	3^[a]	10^[40]
Richard Feynman	3	3	6^[7]
Colin Firth	5^[b]^[19]	1^[22]	6
Stephen Hawking	4	2^[a]	6^[9]
Danica McKellar	4^[41]^[17]^[18]^[42]	2^[b]	6
Nicholas Metropolis	2^[7]	2^[8]	4
Natalie Portman	5^[25]^[26]^[27]^[28]^[29]	2^[b]	7^[24]
Carl Sagan	4	3^[a]	7^[12]
Kristen Stewart	5^[31]	2^[43]^[44]	7

Notes:

^ ^a ^b ^c Includes role as self.
^ ^a ^b ^c See discussion above (Actors).

References

^ Singh, Simon (May 1, 2002). "And the winner tonight is". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on November 12, 2012. Retrieved September 26, 2013.
^ ^a ^b "There's not much separating her from Bacon, Erdos". USA Today. August 14, 2007. Archived from the original on November 4, 2012.
^ Collins, James J.; Chow, Carson C. (1998). "It's a small world". Nature. 393 (6684): 409–10. Bibcode:1998Natur.393..409C. doi:10.1038/30835. PMID 9623993. S2CID 6827605.
^ Grossman, Jerry (January 27, 1999). "The Erdös Number Project". Oakland University. Archived from the original on 1999-02-03. Retrieved 2021-03-03.
^ Grossman, Jerry. "Items of Interest Related to Erdös Numbers". The Erdös Number Project. Oakland University. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
^ Daniel J. Kleitman, "My Career in the Movies,", Notices of the American Mathematical Society, 45, 502 (April 1998)
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Richard Feynman". Erdős Bacon Sabbath Project. Archived from the original on 2017-12-25. Retrieved 2015-12-26.
^ ^a ^b "The Oracle of Bacon". oracleofbacon.org.
^ ^a ^b "Stephen Hawking". Erdős Bacon Sabbath Project. Archived from the original on 2017-12-25. Retrieved 2018-11-10.
^ "From Noam Chomsky to Paul Erdős in four papers". csauthors.net.
^ "The Oracle of Bacon". oracleofbacon.org.
^ ^a ^b "Carl Sagan". Erdős Bacon Sabbath Project. Archived from the original on 2018-01-11. Retrieved 2018-11-10.
^ Lee, Inkyu; Chan, Albert M.; Sundberg, Carl-Erik (2004). "Space-time bit-interleaved coded modulation for OFDM systems". IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing. 52 (3): 820–25. Bibcode:2004ITSP...52..820L. doi:10.1109/TSP.2003.822350. S2CID 16281296.
^ Duren, Peter; Khavinson, Dmitry; Shapiro, Harold S.; Sundberg, Carl-Erik (1994). "Invariant subspaces in Bergman spaces and the biharmonic equation". Michigan Mathematical Journal. 41 (2): 247–59. doi:10.1307/mmj/1029004992.
^ Erdős, Paul; Shapiro, Harold S. (1965). "Large and small subspaces of Hilbert space". Michigan Mathematical Journal. 12 (2): 169–78. doi:10.1307/mmj/1028999306.
^ Patriots Day at IMDb as "Computer Forensic Tech"
^ ^a ^b Chayes, L; McKellar, D; Winn, B (1998). "Percolation and Gibbs states multiplicity for ferromagnetic Ashkin-Teller models on $\mathbb {Z} ^{2}$ ". Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and General. 31 (45): 9055–9063. Bibcode:1998JPhA...31.9055C. doi:10.1088/0305-4470/31/45/005.
^ ^a ^b Chayes, J. T.; Chayes, L.; Kotecký, R. (1995). "The analysis of the Widom-Rowlinson model by stochastic geometric methods". Communications in Mathematical Physics. 172 (3): 551. Bibcode:1995CMaPh.172..551C. doi:10.1007/BF02101808. S2CID 15051914.
^ ^a ^b Kanai, Ryota; Feilden, Tom; Firth, Colin; Rees, Geraint (2011). "Political Orientations Are Correlated with Brain Structure in Young Adults". Current Biology. 21 (8): 677–80. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2011.03.017. PMC 3092984. PMID 21474316.
^ "Colin Firth credited in brain research". BBC News. 2011-06-05. Retrieved 2021-03-13.
^ "From Geraint Rees 0001 to Paul Erdős in four papers". csauthors.net. Archived from the original on 2021-03-13. Retrieved 2021-03-13.
^ ^a ^b Where the Truth Lies at IMDb
^ "The Oracle of Bacon". oracleofbacon.org. Retrieved 2021-03-13.
^ ^a ^b "MICHAEL'S ERDŐS-BACON NUMBER | The Liquid Narrative Research Group". liquidnarrative.eae.utah.edu.
^ ^a ^b Baird, A; Kagan, J; Gaudette, T; Walz, KA; Hershlag, N; Boas, DA (2002). "Frontal Lobe Activation during Object Permanence: Data from Near-Infrared Spectroscopy". NeuroImage. 16 (4): 1120–5. doi:10.1006/nimg.2002.1170. PMID 12202098. S2CID 15630444.
^ ^a ^b Baird, Abigail A.; Colvin, Mary K.; Vanhorn, John D.; Inati, Souheil; Gazzaniga, Michael S. (2005). "Functional Connectivity: Integrating Behavioral, Diffusion Tensor Imaging, and Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Data Sets". Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 17 (4): 687–93. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.484.1868. doi:10.1162/0898929053467569. PMID 15829087. S2CID 4666737.
^ ^a ^b Victor, Jonathan D.; Maiese, Kenneth; Shapley, Robert; Sidtis, John; Gazzaniga, Michael S. (1989). "Acquired central dyschromatopsia: analysis of a case with preservation of color discrimination". Clinical Vision Sciences. 4: 183–96.
^ ^a ^b Azor, Ruth; Gillis, J.; Victor, J. D. (1982). "Combinatorial Applications of Hermite Polynomials". SIAM Journal on Mathematical Analysis. 13 (5): 879–90. doi:10.1137/0513062.
^ ^a ^b Erdos, P.; Gillis, J. (2009). "Note on the Transfinite Diameter". Journal of the London Mathematical Society. s1-12 (3): 185. doi:10.1112/jlms/s1-12.2.185.
^ "The Oracle of Bacon". oracleofbacon.org. Retrieved 2023-05-03.
^ ^a ^b Gershgorn, Dave (19 January 2017). "Kristen Stewart (yes, that Kristen Stewart) just released a research paper on artificial intelligence".
^ "From Paul Erdős to Kristen Stewart in five papers". Archived from the original on 2018-03-14. Retrieved 2021-03-13.
^ "The Oracle of Bacon". oracleofbacon.org. Retrieved 2021-03-13.
^ "From Sergey Brin to Paul Erdős in three papers". csauthors.net.
^ "An Ex-Googler's Take On "The Internship"". June 8, 2013.
^ "The Oracle of Bacon". oracleofbacon.org.
^ "From Bill Gates to Paul Erdős in four papers". csauthors.net.
^ "The Oracle of Bacon". oracleofbacon.org.
^ "Mayim Bialik". Erdős Bacon Sabbath Project. Archived from the original on 2018-01-15. Retrieved 2014-02-09.
^ "Brian Cox". Erdős Bacon Sabbath Project. Archived from the original on 2017-12-25. Retrieved 2025-01-17.
^ "The Erdős Number Project, Erdos1". Archived from the original on 2006-12-07. Retrieved 2006-12-20.
^ Kotecký, R.; Preiss, D. (1986). "Cluster expansion for abstract polymer models". Communications in Mathematical Physics. 103 (3): 491–8. Bibcode:1986CMaPh.103..491K. doi:10.1007/BF01211762. S2CID 121879006.
^ Twilight at IMDb co-starred Kristen Stewart and Michael Sheen
^ Frost/Nixon at IMDb co-starred Michael Sheen and Kevin Bacon

[as-self-40] Includes role as self.

[actors-42] See discussion above (Actors).

[Singh2002-1] Singh, Simon (May 1, 2002). "And the winner tonight is". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on November 12, 2012. Retrieved September 26, 2013.

[USAToday20070814-2] "There's not much separating her from Bacon, Erdos". USA Today. August 14, 2007. Archived from the original on November 4, 2012.

[3] Collins, James J.; Chow, Carson C. (1998). "It's a small world". Nature. 393 (6684): 409–10. Bibcode:1998Natur.393..409C. doi:10.1038/30835. PMID 9623993. S2CID 6827605.

[enp1999-4] Grossman, Jerry (January 27, 1999). "The Erdös Number Project". Oakland University. Archived from the original on 1999-02-03. Retrieved 2021-03-03.

[erdos-bacon-5] Grossman, Jerry. "Items of Interest Related to Erdös Numbers". The Erdös Number Project. Oakland University. Retrieved 24 August 2018.

[6] Daniel J. Kleitman, "My Career in the Movies,", Notices of the American Mathematical Society, 45, 502 (April 1998)

[FeynmanEBS-7] "Richard Feynman". Erdős Bacon Sabbath Project. Archived from the original on 2017-12-25. Retrieved 2015-12-26.

[MetropolisEBS-8] "The Oracle of Bacon". oracleofbacon.org.

[HawkingEBS-9] "Stephen Hawking". Erdős Bacon Sabbath Project. Archived from the original on 2017-12-25. Retrieved 2018-11-10.

[10] "From Noam Chomsky to Paul Erdős in four papers". csauthors.net.

[11] "The Oracle of Bacon". oracleofbacon.org.

[SaganEBS-12] "Carl Sagan". Erdős Bacon Sabbath Project. Archived from the original on 2018-01-11. Retrieved 2018-11-10.

[ofdm-13] Lee, Inkyu; Chan, Albert M.; Sundberg, Carl-Erik (2004). "Space-time bit-interleaved coded modulation for OFDM systems". IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing. 52 (3): 820–25. Bibcode:2004ITSP...52..820L. doi:10.1109/TSP.2003.822350. S2CID 16281296.

[bergman-14] Duren, Peter; Khavinson, Dmitry; Shapiro, Harold S.; Sundberg, Carl-Erik (1994). "Invariant subspaces in Bergman spaces and the biharmonic equation". Michigan Mathematical Journal. 41 (2): 247–59. doi:10.1307/mmj/1029004992.

[hilbert-15] Erdős, Paul; Shapiro, Harold S. (1965). "Large and small subspaces of Hilbert space". Michigan Mathematical Journal. 12 (2): 169–78. doi:10.1307/mmj/1028999306.

[patriots-16] Patriots Day at IMDb as "Computer Forensic Tech"

[ChayesMcKellar-17] Chayes, L; McKellar, D; Winn, B (1998). "Percolation and Gibbs states multiplicity for ferromagnetic Ashkin-Teller models on $\mathbb {Z} ^{2}$ ". Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and General. 31 (45): 9055–9063. Bibcode:1998JPhA...31.9055C. doi:10.1088/0305-4470/31/45/005.

[ChayesKotecky-18] Chayes, J. T.; Chayes, L.; Kotecký, R. (1995). "The analysis of the Widom-Rowlinson model by stochastic geometric methods". Communications in Mathematical Physics. 172 (3): 551. Bibcode:1995CMaPh.172..551C. doi:10.1007/BF02101808. S2CID 15051914.

[:0-19] Kanai, Ryota; Feilden, Tom; Firth, Colin; Rees, Geraint (2011). "Political Orientations Are Correlated with Brain Structure in Young Adults". Current Biology. 21 (8): 677–80. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2011.03.017. PMC 3092984. PMID 21474316.

[20] "Colin Firth credited in brain research". BBC News. 2011-06-05. Retrieved 2021-03-13.

[21] "From Geraint Rees 0001 to Paul Erdős in four papers". csauthors.net. Archived from the original on 2021-03-13. Retrieved 2021-03-13.

[Where_the_Truth_Lies_IMDB-22] Where the Truth Lies at IMDb

[23] "The Oracle of Bacon". oracleofbacon.org. Retrieved 2021-03-13.

[auto2-24] "MICHAEL'S ERDŐS-BACON NUMBER | The Liquid Narrative Research Group". liquidnarrative.eae.utah.edu.

[lobe-25] Baird, A; Kagan, J; Gaudette, T; Walz, KA; Hershlag, N; Boas, DA (2002). "Frontal Lobe Activation during Object Permanence: Data from Near-Infrared Spectroscopy". NeuroImage. 16 (4): 1120–5. doi:10.1006/nimg.2002.1170. PMID 12202098. S2CID 15630444.

[reduction-26] Baird, Abigail A.; Colvin, Mary K.; Vanhorn, John D.; Inati, Souheil; Gazzaniga, Michael S. (2005). "Functional Connectivity: Integrating Behavioral, Diffusion Tensor Imaging, and Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Data Sets". Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 17 (4): 687–93. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.484.1868. doi:10.1162/0898929053467569. PMID 15829087. S2CID 4666737.

[parallel-27] Victor, Jonathan D.; Maiese, Kenneth; Shapley, Robert; Sidtis, John; Gazzaniga, Michael S. (1989). "Acquired central dyschromatopsia: analysis of a case with preservation of color discrimination". Clinical Vision Sciences. 4: 183–96.

[2D-28] Azor, Ruth; Gillis, J.; Victor, J. D. (1982). "Combinatorial Applications of Hermite Polynomials". SIAM Journal on Mathematical Analysis. 13 (5): 879–90. doi:10.1137/0513062.

[logic-29] Erdos, P.; Gillis, J. (2009). "Note on the Transfinite Diameter". Journal of the London Mathematical Society. s1-12 (3): 185. doi:10.1112/jlms/s1-12.2.185.

[portman-bacon-30] "The Oracle of Bacon". oracleofbacon.org. Retrieved 2023-05-03.

[KSPE-31] Gershgorn, Dave (19 January 2017). "Kristen Stewart (yes, that Kristen Stewart) just released a research paper on artificial intelligence".

[32] "From Paul Erdős to Kristen Stewart in five papers". Archived from the original on 2018-03-14. Retrieved 2021-03-13.

[33] "The Oracle of Bacon". oracleofbacon.org. Retrieved 2021-03-13.

[34] "From Sergey Brin to Paul Erdős in three papers". csauthors.net.

[35] "An Ex-Googler's Take On "The Internship"". June 8, 2013.

[36] "The Oracle of Bacon". oracleofbacon.org.

[37] "From Bill Gates to Paul Erdős in four papers". csauthors.net.

[38] "The Oracle of Bacon". oracleofbacon.org.

[39] "Mayim Bialik". Erdős Bacon Sabbath Project. Archived from the original on 2018-01-15. Retrieved 2014-02-09.

[CoxEBS-41] "Brian Cox". Erdős Bacon Sabbath Project. Archived from the original on 2017-12-25. Retrieved 2025-01-17.

[Erdos1-43] "The Erdős Number Project, Erdos1". Archived from the original on 2006-12-07. Retrieved 2006-12-20.

[KoteckyPreiss-44] Kotecký, R.; Preiss, D. (1986). "Cluster expansion for abstract polymer models". Communications in Mathematical Physics. 103 (3): 491–8. Bibcode:1986CMaPh.103..491K. doi:10.1007/BF01211762. S2CID 121879006.

[45] Twilight at IMDb co-starred Kristen Stewart and Michael Sheen

[46] Frost/Nixon at IMDb co-starred Michael Sheen and Kevin Bacon

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