New Pick-Up Line: What's Your Erdö s Number?
Every man has his price, in this case especially after he has assumed
room temperature. Paul Erdö s, a Hungarian mathematician who left this
Earth in 1996, was a prodigy in his day. A notable eccentric, he usually
had no permanent address and worked with other mathematicians all over
the world to author or co-author more than 500 scholarly papers. To
have one's name associated with Erdö s on a publication was, and still
is, a coveted status symbol in the world of number crunchers. Similar
to the six degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon theorem, aspiring
mathematicians strive for an "Erdö s Number," which is the separation
from actually having co-authored a paper with Erdö s himself: an Erdos
Number of 1. Co-authoring a paper with someone who co-authored a paper
with Erdö s earns one an Erdö s Number of 2, and so on. So valuable
is the ranking that some high-Erdö s-Number authors are auctioning off
their co-authorship for a stiff price, just to help raise another mathematician's
Erdö s Number. Seems Capitalism has invaded the halls of Academe.
A huge collection of my 'Factoids' can be accessed from my 'Kirt's Cogitations'
table of contents.
Topical Smorgasbord, another manifestation of Factoids,
are be found on these pages:
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3 |
4 | 5
| 6 | 7
| 8 | 9
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11 | 12 |
13 | 14
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16 | 17 |
18 | 19
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21 | 22
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24 | 25 |
26 | 27
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29 | 30 |
31 | 32
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34 | 35 |
All pertain to topics that are related to the general engineering and science theme
of RF Cafe.
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