There is also the Sabbath number, with the same principle, but it's the distance musicians are from the band Black Sabbath, as they changed formation countless times. Together these three make up the Erdős Bacon Sabbath Number. Stephen Hawkin has the Erdős Bacon Sabbath Number of 8, one of the lowest known; he has the Erdős number of 4, Bacon number of 2 and Sabbath number of 2.
Re:Erdős–Bacon Number
by thebear on Sunday April 27, 2014 @07:26AM
(#7654708)
Yay, my Erdos number is 2 and thus better than that of Richard Feynman. I have a paper with Erdos-1 mathematician Saharon Shelah. Unfortunately, my Bacon number is infinity. To look up your Erdos number, if any, go to
Just found out my Erdos number is 7 thanks to this [0] (it seems to be only mathematical papers so I had to input a co-author to find mine). Now to just get a bacon and sabbath number...
Re:Erdős–Bacon Number
by ergoproxy on Sunday April 27, 2014 @06:55PM
(#7657338)
My Erdős Number is 4:
Me->Mukkai S. Krishnamoorthy->Joseph E. Flaherty->David C. Arney->Paul Erdős
For a time, it appeared to be 2, but Paul Erdős and the Erdős-1 mathematician with whom I collaborated ultimately withdrew their paper, because they found their results were similar to a previously published paper.
I've also appeared on a local Philadelphia PA TV show with newscasters who interviewed Kevin Bacon. Not sure if this gives me a finite Bacon Number, since it was TV (not a movie) and it was non-fiction. If so, then I have the finite Erdős–Bacon Number of 6.
My Erdős–Bacon number is 6. Bacon number 3: I was in a film with Terence Donovan who has a Bacon number of 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=kK... Erdős number 3: I wrote a paper with Gregor Leander who has an Erdős number of 2. I peaked.
I'm fairly certain I have a finite Erdos number, but it sure is a pain to find it. Someone with more free time than I should make a list of famous contemporary computer scientists by research area and their Erdos number! It would be a lot of help.
EDIT: it seems my computational geometry professor, Bernard Chazelle, has an E-B number of 5. Too bad I do not have any papers authored with him.
Re:Erdős–Bacon Number
by jimhefferon on Sunday April 27, 2014 @10:34AM
(#7655202)
It is a stretch, but it is all in good fun: my bacon number is 3 (I played Tara O'Reilly's husband (uncredited) in Shout it Out) and my Erdos number is 3 (I co-wrote a paper for the TeX User's Group journal with Michael Doob). Total Erdos-Bacon number: 6
Source: this book http://www.amazon.co.uk/pracht-van-priemgetallen-eeuwenlange... (not an affiliate link)
Edit: I didn't notice ColinWright's comment :)
http://erdosbaconsabbath.com/
It's all a bit silly ...
https://files.oakland.edu/users/grossman/enp/Erdos1.html
[0] http://www.ams.org/mathscinet/collaborationDistance.html
I've also appeared on a local Philadelphia PA TV show with newscasters who interviewed Kevin Bacon. Not sure if this gives me a finite Bacon Number, since it was TV (not a movie) and it was non-fiction. If so, then I have the finite Erdős–Bacon Number of 6.
EDIT: it seems my computational geometry professor, Bernard Chazelle, has an E-B number of 5. Too bad I do not have any papers authored with him.