Apocalypse
Cidu Bill on Jun 19th 2009
The metatext, “I wonder if I still have time to go shoot a short film with Kevin Bacon,” doesn’t seem to be any help here.
Filed in Bill Bickel, CIDU, apocalypse, comic strips, comics, humor, xkcd | 31 responses so far
Smasher Jun 19th 2009 at 05:27 pm 1
The Erdős number, honouring the late Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős, is a way of describing the “collaborative distance” between a person and Erdős, as measured by authorship of mathematical papers.
It was created by friends as a humorous tribute to the enormous output of Erdős, one of the most prolific modern writers of mathematical papers, and has become well-known in scientific circles as a tongue-in-cheek measurement of mathematical prominence.
Paul Erdős was an influential and itinerant mathematician, who spent a large portion of his later life living out of a suitcase and writing papers with those of his colleagues willing to give him room and board. He published more papers during his life than any other mathematician in history (at least 1400).
(ganked from Wiki)
AMC Jun 19th 2009 at 05:28 pm 2
Erdos was a guy who traveled around, dropping in on mathematicians and offering to help on writing math papers. He did LOTS of them, as co-author. For a mathematician, your Erdos number is like six-degrees-of-Bacon, only it isn’t just the connection, it is how low the number is.
If you actually wrote a paper with Erdos, you Erdos number is 1. If you wrote a paper with someone who wrote a paper with Erdos, you number is 2. If you wrote a paper with someone who wrote a paper with someone who wrote a paper with Erdos, you Erdos number is 3. The prestige is in having a low Erdos number.
Hence, getting him to sign with all the other mathematicians would lower all the signers to an Erdos number of 1.
Austin Jun 19th 2009 at 05:29 pm 3
I had to do a little research on this one. Apparently Erdos was a pretty prolific collaborator. Mathematicians had an “Erdos number” that corresponded to the degrees they were separated from a paper with him on it. For example, and Erdos number of 1 meant you worked directly with him. An Erdos number of 2 meant that you worked with someone who worked directly with him. And so on and so forth.
The meta-text compares this to the “6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon” game.
+1000 internet nerd points to the people who knew this without consulting Wikipedia.
Jeff Jun 19th 2009 at 05:30 pm 4
Paul Erdos was a prolific mathematician who co-authored many papers with many other mathemeticians. At one point an Erdos number was proposed. This being how many coauthors away from Erdos you are. If you co-authored a paper with him, your Erdos number is 1. (Erdos’ number is 0). If you co-authored with someone with an Erdos number of 1, your Erdos number is 2.
These mathematician are all trying to get their Erdos number to 1.
The Kevin Bacon reference, refers to the Bacon number which is more famous and highly analgous to the Erdos number, which I won’t bother to explain here.
Bill Zilch Jun 19th 2009 at 05:41 pm 5
Well, everyone seems to have got it. I read it this morning and I instantly knew it would end up on CIDU.
Chennette Jun 19th 2009 at 05:46 pm 6
i did the wikipedia thing too, but have to say my brain was slow and I didn’t make the connection right away. Possibly because I didn’t realise it was a paper being written. I thought it was some sort of petition, which didn’t make sense.
I get it now. And it is funny
Mike Jun 19th 2009 at 05:53 pm 7
to put it another way, he’s the kevin bacon of math (and computer science and related fields). I’m an erdos 4 and a bacon 2
xkcd somehow always manages to up the geek quotient even further. you have to be impressed.
Cidu Bill Jun 19th 2009 at 05:56 pm 8
You also have to be impressed at the fact that no matter what he throws out there, CIDU readers nail it almost immediately.
Lost in A**2 Jun 19th 2009 at 06:00 pm 9
I want to claim my points! I know someone with an Erdos number of 3.
Mel Jun 19th 2009 at 06:08 pm 10
Ah Ha! So the point is that they’re trying to lower their Erdos number and they can now do that because he’s among the undead. I had figured out the Erdos number / Kevin Bacon thing but hadn’t figured out what it had to do with the Zombie Apocalypse.
rusty Jun 19th 2009 at 09:13 pm 11
Quick trivia - Name the person with the lowest combined Erdos-Bacon number.
Hint: The number is 3
Answer: Stephen Hawking
Ron Jun 20th 2009 at 01:20 am 12
This is not the first time XKCD used the Erdos number.
Check out the hover text in http://xkcd.com/403/
apricoco Jun 20th 2009 at 02:32 am 13
So, if I am sleeping with someone with an Erdos number of 4, does that make my number 5? Haha, I know it doesn’t. But I want to know who Mike is, because, dude! You were in a movie with someone who was in a movie with Kevin Bacon? And, dude! Math too? My hero.
chuckers Jun 20th 2009 at 04:41 am 14
Hey, I have a Bacon number of 3!
My Erdos number is probably closer to infinity, though.
Nicole Jun 20th 2009 at 08:04 am 15
Rusty … sorry but according The Erdös Number Project to the geneticist Eric Lander has Erdös number 2 and D Frank Hsu has an Erdös number of 1
http://www4.oakland.edu/enp/erdpaths/
If you scroll towards the bottom of the page, you will see that they list quite a few 2s and a few 1s
Powers Jun 20th 2009 at 08:20 am 16
Nicole, what does that list have to do with combined Erdos-Bacon numbers?
However, according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erdos-Bacon_number, Hawking’s Erdos number is 4, so there’s no way he could have an Erdos-Bacon number of 3. Daniel Kleitman apparently has an Erdos-Bacon number of 3, the lowest known. (Erdos himself may also be a three, depending on how one counts.)
Nicole Jun 20th 2009 at 09:29 am 17
Woops — my misunderstanding — I didn’t catch the Bacon connection — mea culpa
Morris Keesan Jun 20th 2009 at 11:27 am 18
I loved this xkcd instalment, loved that I had to do so much research to understand it, and knew that I would see it here the next day. I also think that it’s really cool that Natalie Portman has a low Erdos-Bacon number.
Winter Wallaby Jun 20th 2009 at 12:23 pm 19
Power’s, isn’t Erdos’ Erdos number <=2, by any reasonable method of counting? Erdos has definitely co-authored a paper with someone who’s co-authored a paper with Erdos.
Winter Wallaby Jun 20th 2009 at 12:25 pm 20
Oh, duh, you’re talking about Erdos-Bacon numbers, not Erdos numbers. Never mind; not sure how I made the same mistake right after reading Nicole’s comments.
jayjaybear Jun 20th 2009 at 01:27 pm 21
When I read XKCD the other day I KNEW it would show up here…
Chakolate Jun 20th 2009 at 01:45 pm 22
Okay, Austin @3 says I get 1000 internet nerd points for knowing what and Erdos number was without looking it up. How many more do I get for knowing a 2?
Chakolate Jun 20th 2009 at 01:46 pm 23
And how many more for knowing it’s pronounced ‘air-dish’?
Chakolate Jun 20th 2009 at 01:47 pm 24
And does it bother anybody else that on NUMB3RS they’re always calling Euler ‘Oiler’? Like fingernails on a blackboard, to me.
And after this I’ll try to remember all my points for one post.
Chakolate Jun 20th 2009 at 01:48 pm 25
YIKES! I meant, that they’re always calling him ‘yooler’ - ‘oiler’ is the correct pronunciation. Sheesh!
infrapinklizzard Jun 20th 2009 at 01:55 pm 26
Paul Erdös’ Erdös number is 0, as these numbers work like exponents. Thus Erdos^0 = unity.
Rammy M Jun 20th 2009 at 02:33 pm 27
I can brag (vicariously?) that my brother’s Erdos number is 2, so I understood and enjoyed the comic before I saw it here (yay me), now I go back to (or rather continue) being unfamous.
CaroZ Jun 20th 2009 at 07:51 pm 28
Seeing xkcd the other day inspired me to finally figure out my Erdos number. I am amazed that it is (at most) 4!
Joshua Jun 21st 2009 at 01:03 pm 29
Lost in A**2: If you know someone with an Erdos number of 3, then write a paper with them and you can get an Erdos number of 4. Better yet, get one of Erdos’s direct collaborators to sign on as a co-author, and then you and your friend will both achieve Erdos numbers of 2.
Mike Jun 25th 2009 at 02:12 pm 30
this is long past due. My Erdos number is totally legitimate, but my Bacon number is a slight stretch — the opening shot of “Crash” (2004) is a photo of mine, Matt Dillon was in Crash, Dillon and Bacon were in Wild Things. I’m not actually in the film credits for Crash, but hey close enough for dinner parties.
Mike C Jun 30th 2009 at 12:02 am 31
The only reason I got this joke is because of this comic: http://www.chrisyates.net/reprographics/index.php?page=842
Ironically, the one pictured explaining Erdos numbers is the author of XKDC.