Just the sort of geeky catnip that will ruin the list if indulged. So, let's
get indulging ...
I don't have a Palin number ... THAT I KNOW OF, nudge, nudge
On Erdős, I also have two paths via Schofield coauthors (Kevin Quinn and
Iain McLean) that make me a 4. Are there any political scientists, broadly
defined, who are Erdős 3 without a Schofield coauthorship? Any 2's who
aren't Norman?
Burt
On Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 10:54 AM, Jake Bowers <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Those of you interested in your Erdös numbers (or non-kissing related
> distances with other mathematicians/statisticians) might be interested in
> this tool:
> http://www.ams.org/mathscinet/collaborationDistance.html
>
> Best,
>
> Jake
>
>
> On Sep 15, 2008, at 12:15 AM, James Fowler wrote:
>
> As many of you know, starting in the 1960s, mathematicians had fun at
>> parties (no, really) by trying to figure out their Erdős number. This
>> referred to their minimum collaboration distance between themselves and the
>> extremely prolific mathematician Paul Erdős -- Erdős has number 0, people
>> who coauthored a paper with him have number 1, their coauthors have number
>> 2, and so on.
>>
>> My own Erdős number is at most 4 via at least two network paths:
>>
>> me - Michael Laver - Norman Schofield - Craig Tovey - Paul Erdős
>> me - Bernard Grofman - Norman Schofield - Craig Tovey - Paul Erdős
>>
>> Well, today I learned from my neighbors that Timothy Carr, the man from
>> whom I bought my current house, was leaning towards voting for Obama until
>> McCain announced his vice-presidential nominee (stay with me here). But in
>> what must have been a stunned voice, he said "I can't vote for Obama now --
>> I kissed Sara Palin when I was in high school!" (Needless to say, Carr is
>> from Alaska)
>>
>> So, astonishingly, this seems to give me a "Palin number" of at most 2
>> (though unless I am really drunk, I'm pretty sure it's not 0 or 1):
>>
>> me - Timothy Carr - Sara Palin
>>
>> I bought my house from a man who kissed Sara Palin.
>>
>> Maybe even more remarkably, if we stretch the rules on what constitutes a
>> "collaboration", it gives Palin an Erdős number of at most 6. Compare that
>> with Natalie Portman whose Erdős number is at most 5 from her Harvard psych
>> undergrad days.
>>
>> All sorts of interesting questions arise.
>>
>> *In high school was Palin as prolific in "collaborating" as Erdős was at
>> publishing?
>>
>> *Could this be a factor behind "the Palin bump?"
>>
>> *Are there any shorter paths between Paul Erdős and Sara Palin?
>>
>> *And what is *your* Palin number?
>>
>> James H. Fowler
>> http://jhfowler.ucsd.edu
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> **********************************************************
>> Political Methodology E-Mail List
>> Editors: Melanie Goodrich, <[log in to unmask]>
>> Delia Bailey, <[log in to unmask]>
>> **********************************************************
>> Send messages to [log in to unmask]
>> To join the list, cancel your subscription, or modify
>> your subscription settings visit:
>>
>> http://polmeth.wustl.edu/polmeth.php
>>
>> **********************************************************
>>
>>
>>
> **********************************************************
> Political Methodology E-Mail List
> Editors: Melanie Goodrich, <[log in to unmask]>
> Delia Bailey, <[log in to unmask]>
> **********************************************************
> Send messages to [log in to unmask]
> To join the list, cancel your subscription, or modify
> your subscription settings visit:
>
> http://polmeth.wustl.edu/polmeth.php
>
> **********************************************************
>
--
--
Burt L. Monroe
Pennsylvania State University
Associate Professor, Dept. of Political Science
Director, Quantitative Social Science Initiative
http://qssi.psu.edu/
814-865-9215 (Office)
734-323-8478 (Cell)
burtmonroe [at] psu [dot] edu
|
