Twenty Questions - Game 478

[damo666]

Without looking it up, I think 478 is roughly the number of coauthors he had.

No, more than 1500!

I just checked on MathSciNet; that lists Erdős with 512 coauthors (and 1447 publications).

Apologies, I was thinking of papers not co-authors.

512 eh? Sounds deliberate.

[damo666]

I love that we went for the "narrowing down the language group" line of questioning when it was a Hungarian.

Hungarians seem to be some of the most interesting picks for 20q

houdini, rubik, elo, and now erdős

Have we not had PULITZER?

[miminena]

I love that we went for the "narrowing down the language group" line of questioning when it was a Hungarian.

Hungarians seem to be some of the most interesting picks for 20q

houdini, rubik, elo, and now erdős

Have we not had PULITZER?

oh yeah, i guess we have. that list was just off the top of my head

[Spartaculous]

For those who don't know about Erdős numbers:

Erdős is assigned an Erdős number of 0. All of Erdős's coauthors get Erdős number of 1. Then, all of their coauthors (who do not already have an Erdős number) receive an Erdős number of 2. And so on. (A different way of viewing it is as the length of the shortest publication chain from you to Erdős, where you pass through papers with at least one shared coauthor.)

I know a math professor whose computer has an Erdős number of 3.

A related concept is that of the Bacon number. Kevin Bacon gets a Bacon number of 0. Everyone who has appeared in a movie with Kevin Bacon gets a Bacon number of 1. And so on.

Then, there is the concept of the Erdős-Bacon number: add together your Erdős and Bacon numbers. I know a math professor whose dissertation advisor has Erdős-Bacon number 3.

Next, there is the Sabbath number. If you were in Black Sabbath, you have Sabbath number 0. If you performed (on stage, on a recording, etc.) with someone in Black Sabbath, you have Sabbath number 1. And so on.

Of course, we can then define the Erdős-Bacon-Sabbath number. I know a guy with Erdős-Bacon-Sabbath number 6.

[Spartaculous]

I love that we went for the "narrowing down the language group" line of questioning when it was a Hungarian.

Hungarians seem to be some of the most interesting picks for 20q

houdini, rubik, elo, and now erdős

See (for example) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martians_(scientists) (it also helps to add to the story that Hungarian is such a "different" language).

[miminena]

I wonder what the diplomacy equivalent to an erdős number would be. birsan maybe?