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eBay auction for a lower Erdos number

eBay auction for a lower Erdos number.

Reader comments

philApr 21, 2004 at 12:54PM

kevin bacon should do this.

Joe GanleyApr 21, 2004 at 10:20PM

Feh. Mine is already 3.

bobApr 22, 2004 at 2:17AM

whats next, ebay auctions for doing taxes? wait a damn minute....that just might work.

sarahApr 22, 2004 at 9:26AM

I'm curious, has anyone spotted any Amazon listings for products that don't exist, the way that Ebay is selling a lot of intangibles these days?

michaelApr 22, 2004 at 8:17PM

sarah, not off the top of my head. But iirc Half Life 2 is still listed as being released in 1969

JamesApr 22, 2004 at 9:31PM

Do e-books count?

NickApr 23, 2004 at 9:34AM

As a real live mathematician, maybe I should place a bid. Heck, I could probably even use grant money to pay for it...

Joe GanleyApr 23, 2004 at 10:10AM

If you've published, chances are very high that your Erdos number is already no greater than 5.

lnhApr 23, 2004 at 10:44AM

Still, it's a hillarious concept.

NickApr 23, 2004 at 11:12AM

I'm pretty sure that I'm a 6. It seems impossible to find a path lower than that, but of course there could be one. I'm an applied mathematician, and I think that generally people in applied mathematics have higher Erdos numbers (even really big names).

Rick BradleyApr 23, 2004 at 3:50PM

Nick, maybe you should find a computer scientist to partner with. I ended up with a 3 after publishing a CS paper (half theory, half applied) -- and I didn't even realize I had such a low Erdos number until I started thinking that my advisor's advisor was a pretty well-connected guy. Then again, I tend to think people should just do what they like to do and let the pieces fall where they may. One day maybe people will be auctioning Nick numbers, or trying to stay at hotels where you purportedly stayed one night -- I doubt Erdos was worried about such things.

This thread is closed to new comments. Thanks to everyone who responded.