A Tangled Web We Weave
You may have heard of the “six degrees of separation” concept. The idea is that every person on Earth has a web of social contacts so interwoven that it would only take six people or less to get from any one person on Earth to another.
For example, if I was a farmer in Idaho and I was tasked with getting a message to a stock broker in New York, I could ask my wife who knows a relative in New York who knows an old friend who works on Wall Street who knows a colleague who knows this particular stock broker. The degrees of separation for this example would be five, as it takes five steps to get from one person to another. The theory is that, on average, any two people can be connected in less than six steps.
An outcropping of this theory has been applied to the actor Kevin Bacon. The “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” is a game that was developed utilizing the wide variety of roles that the actor has been in and people who he has worked with. The goal of the game is to get from any movie star to Kevin Bacon in under six steps. It is a fun game to play with your friends, especially if you are a film nerd (or have access to IMDB).
Via Wikipedia
Bacon Numbers
Of course, there just happened to be some researchers sitting around who decided to take this game to the next level. What they did was take all of the actors and actresses listed on IMDB and cross-reference them so that a vast network would appear, showing every listed actor’s connections to Kevin Bacon. This led to the development of the “Bacon Number.”
The Bacon number of an actor or actress is the number of degrees of separation he or she has from Bacon, as defined by the game. The higher the Bacon number, the farther away from Kevin Bacon the actor is.
The computation of a Bacon number for actor X is a “shortest path” algorithm:
- Kevin Bacon himself has a Bacon number of 0.
- Those actors who have worked directly with Kevin Bacon have a Bacon number of 1.
- If the lowest Bacon number of any actor with whom X has appeared in a movie is N, X’s Bacon number is N + 1.
Here is an example, using Elvis Presley:
- Elvis Presley was in Change of Habit (1969) with Edward Asner
- Edward Asner was in JFK (1991) with Kevin Bacon
Therefore Asner has a Bacon number of 1, and Presley (who never appeared in a film with Bacon himself) has a Bacon number of 2.
This is all well and good, but the interesting result comes from computing the average Bacon Number for all actors and actresses. It turns out, far from being six degrees away from Mr. Bacon, the average Bacon number for all IMDB listed actors turned out to be only 2.989. This that, on average, in around three steps any actor or actress in Hollywood can be linked back to Bacon.
I’m glad that science and mathematics can shed light on these important mysteries. But that also means that if you are playing the “six degrees of Kevin Bacon” game, you should be only needing around three moves per round. Otherwise, scientifically, you suck.
Hey there :) I made your blog my homepage some weeks ago, so I can wander upon the daily facts as soon as I open my web browser, and be up to the news you may present us.
Recently, I have been working on a project of this kind, applying the theory to the social interaction taking place at my School, and the results were that approx. 2.6 connections are enough for any student to be in daily touch with other student.
You should have problably referred Stanley Milgram as the person with such original social innovative theory. Altough Kevin Bacon conducted the experience described above, Milgram did it in a larger scale and “mothershipped” all the formula. This being done at the 60′s, I guess.
Presenting the following words as a most sincere request, would it be possible to fulfill your blog posts with accurate science theories, methods and language? This meaning, if it would actually be possible to describe each article with solid scientific explanations, using scientific terminology and exposing the situation to its deserved depth. In a certain way, to avoid common sense and let the blog be given its chance to actually develop an important role on the scientific community. I find it kind of depressing, even more if you are gifted with abilities to constantly understand “everything”, to stumble upon “general” curiosities to satisfy the major demanda than actually discuss pure biology, geology, chemistry, physics and psychology and, guarantee the interaction every scientist deserve for each other. For example, have you heard about the rehabilitation of the spine medula obtained due to experiments in paralysed rats? What are the scientific (true and solid, of course) reasons behind such achievement? And your point of view / opinion about the matter mentioned? :)
Hope you’ll take upon consideration my humble words.
Following :)
First of all, thank you so much for the kind words.
Second, I apologize for not having the rigor that you may expect. This is a general science blog, aimed at getting people interested in science and skepticism. Sadly, I hardly have the time to expound on the topics as much as I want to. If you want more in-depth blogging, may I suggest checking out ScienceBlogs or Discover Blogs.
It really takes a lot of time to go in depth and if anyone wants to they can. This blog is better more general and gives people a more rounded view of different scientific disciplines. It’s like a blog of cool seeds to put in your mind and if you want you can water them by going into more depth yourself from other sources.
You don’t mention it and so I don’t know if you’re aware of it, but there’s a site called The Oracle of Bacon in which you can see the Bacon number of anybody on IMDB. It’s at http://oracleofbacon.org/. It’s implied you know about this, but you don’t say it directly.
Thanks Vern, it’s linked to in the text next to the average Bacon number.
Yes, and it is interesting to see that even though Kevin is used for the game he is not the best “Center of the Hollywood Universe” but is 444th. I guess the center changes a lot but the game would be even easier if we picked Dennis Hopper or Bruce Willis.
Interesting, I didn’t know that. I think people just like to say “bacon.”