Matt Damon's Erdos Number

Rating: 9/10 (30 July 2008)

Paul Erdos (1913-1996) was a remarkably prolific mathematician. He collaborated on publications with over 500 mathematicians. In a semi-serious way of keeping track of Erdos' impact on the field, authors are assigned "Erdos Numbers" indicating how "close" they were to Erdos. Erdos' immediate co-authors are assigned Erdos Number 1. _Their_ co-authors (numbering over 6000!) are assigned Erdos Number 2, and so on.
It turns out that Matt Damon collaborated with Dan Kleitman (Erdos Number 2) while Kleitman served as technical adviser to "Good Will Hunting". So Matt Damon has Erdos Number 3 - a distinction many mathematicians envy!