Paul Erd

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Paul Erdös (1913-96)The Most Prolific
Mathematician Ever!

• Born Budapest, Hungary
• Died Warsaw, Poland
• Mathematics was his life
• Number theory, combinatorics, discrete
  mathematics
• these form the foundation of computing
• Everything else was an encumbrance to his
  mathematical pursuits
• property, money, clothes, intimacy, social
  pleasantries
• lived out of a suitcase

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A True Genius Erdös Number

• Erdös traveled the world
• living out of a suitcase
• to pose and solve problems
• welcomed at any university or research center
• the host's responsibility to lodge, feed, do
  income taxes
• Erdös wrote may be over a thousand research
  papers
• His Erdös number is 0
• Erdöss co-authors have Erdös number 1
• People who have written a joint paper with
  someone with Erdös number 1 have Erdös number 2,
  and so on.

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Erdös NumberSource http//www.oakland.edu/enp/

• Erdös number 0 --- 1 person
• Erdös number 1 --- 504 people
• Erdös number 2 --- 6593 people
• Erdös number 3 --- 33605 people
• (includes David Mutchler)
• David Mutchler Sushil Jajodia Yechezkel
  Zalcstein Erdös
• Erdös number 4 --- 83642 people
• (includes Salman Azhar)
• S. Azhar John Reif Ramamohan Paturi Endre
  Szemerédi Erdös
• Erdös number 5 --- 87760 people
• (includes Steve Chenoweth)
• S. V. Chenoweth Francis Murray Kenneth Miller
  Harold Shapiro Erdös

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Sources

• www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/ history/Mathematicia
  ns/Erdos.html
• www.oakland.edu/grossman/erdoshp.html
• www.oakland.edu/enp/