The Erdös number is simply the distance from Paul Erdös in the graph of all scientists, where two individuals are connected if they have published together. My Erdös number is at most three, as there is a path of length three (between Erdös and me) going through Peter Salamon and Lars Kai Hansen (whose Erdös number is 2). This is simply an amusing bit of science sociology trivia. These numbers certainly do not indicate any prominence in science or mathematics. Alexander Grothendieck, for example, seems to have an Erdös number of 5. |