Peyton Jones numbers
Upon hearing that Simon has two papers in ICFP this year, it occurred to me that he is so prolific that we might as well start keeping track of our Peyton Jones numbers. Though I have to admit that Simon has a ways go to live up to the 1500 some papers (co)authored by Erdős. Akin to an Erdős number, we define a Peyton Jones number as
In order to be assigned an Peyton Jones number, an author must co-write a paper with an author with a finite Peyton Jones number. Simon Peyton Jones has an Peyton Jones number of zero. If the lowest Peyton Jones number of a coauthor is X, then the author's Peyton Jones number is X + 1.
But maybe I'm biased having a Peyton Jones number of 1. My Church number is 6 (Church, Kleene, Constable, Harper, Morrisett, Weirich). Surprisingly, I could not find any indication that Church, Kleene, or Constable have an Erdős number less than or equal to six, so I am doubtful that my Erdős number is particularly interesting.
James Cheney said,
July 19, 2007 @ 9:13 am
Oops, forgot to meta the <’s.
Min is < 4 (Urban, Pitts, Makkai, Erdős)
So Greg’s is < 5 and you are < 7.
James Cheney said,
July 19, 2007 @ 9:14 am
And for < you should read <=…
washburn said,
July 19, 2007 @ 1:02 pm
I was mentioning this to Stephanie and she thinks ours is actually lower because there is someone she published with that was closer than Greg. But she couldn’t remember who it was.
I just investigated and I think if you start with André Scedrov (with an Erdős number of 2), who has published with Steve Zdancewic (making his 3), who has published with Stephanie Weirich and me (making ours 4).
washburn said,
July 19, 2007 @ 2:02 pm
Stephanie pointed out that we also have a path through Benjamin Pierce instead of Steve Zdancewic to André Scedrov.