So who was Erdos?
What is the "erdos" number
Have you ever written anything with Jesus as co-author?
Mathematicians have a kind of game with co-authorship. They ask each other “What is your Erdos number?”
What is all this about ?
Paul Erdos (Died 1996) was an important Hungarian mathematician with 1500 published mathematical papers to his credit, which is a world record.
"…probably the most eccentric mathematician in the world," Erdős spent most of his adult life living out of a suitcase. During his visits to mathematician hosts, Erdős expected them to lodge him, feed him, and do his laundry, along with anything else he needed, as well as arrange for him to get to his next destination. He would work with his hosts to write papers on mathematics. This perhaps illustrates the reason for his joking statement “A mathematician is a device for changing coffee into theorems.” A host mathematician who had the profound privilege of publishing a paper co-authored with Erdos was said to have an “Erdos” number of 1. Another mathematician without publication with Erdos, but publication with a co-author of Erdos, had an erdos number of 2 – less direct but still important. Someone else more distant, who co-authored a paper with someone boasting even an erdos number of 2, became an erdos 3, and so on. A less and less direct connection.
Erdős received at least fifteen honorary doctorates, and in mathematical history, is comparable only with the Swiss genius, Leonhard Euler.
What is your Jesus number?