So, for a completely dorky aside, my Erdös number is 4.

Most practicing mathematicians are familiar with the definition of one’s Erdös number. Paul Erdös (1913–1996), the widely-traveled and incredibly prolific Hungarian mathematician of the highest caliber, wrote hundreds of mathematical research papers in many different areas, many in collaboration with others. Erdös’s Erdös number is 0. Erdös’s coauthors have Erdös number 1. People other than Erdös who have written a joint paper with someone with Erdös number 1 but not with Erdös have Erdös number 2, and so on. If there is no chain of coauthorships connecting someone with Erdös, then that person’s Erdös number is said to be infinite. For someone who comes from a long lineage of mathematical psychologists, this is kind of cool.

Check out this web site for most about the Erdös project.

Here’s my chain to Erdös:
I published with Robert Nosofsky
Robert Nosofsky published with R. Duncan Luce
R. Duncan Luce published with Peter C. Fishburn
Peter C. Fishburn published with Paul Erdös

Here are the Erdös numbers for other (far more famous) scientists

Einsten had an Erdös number of 2, so that could make my Einstein number 6 (though Erdös), though there could be a closer link to Einstein somewhere.

What does this all mean? Probably not much: "By the time one reaches Erdös Number 5 almost all mathematicians are included, along with a great many computer scientists, physicists, biologists, economists, social scientists and, perhaps, even baseball players. Carl Pommerance, a long-time Erdös collaborator, recently argued that Hank Aaron should have an Erdös number of 1. Pommerance owns a baseball signed by both Aaron and Erdös, and he believes it should count as a joint publication." (http://bookbuzz.com/MBIO_About_Erdos.htm)

Note: Technically the ö in Erdös should have a double ‘ over the o, not a ö, but I have found no easy way to reproduce that typography on my web site.