Under construction
The Genesis of Octopus and More
by
Bob Chen (by.bob.c@gmail.com)
It dawns on me that I wrote chit-chat's quite a bit throughout the
years. I know that the series never reach # 99. To turn over a new
leaf, and hoping we'll all remain a big happy family, I give you all
chit-chat # 100 " The Genesis of Octopus and More"
The lighteroctopus has been around for awhile now. No clear written
history of the beginning. I vaguely recall S.S. started it around the
time Tony Kwok wanted to retire after many years as the web-master.
It is fortunate that James Koo stepped in and revived the web-site.
After some growing pains, we are back to normal.
I came across a good presentation from Fan Chung of UCSD's Department
of Computer Sciences and Engineering. She's a well-known
mathematician in combinatorics. With her husband, Ron L. Graham, they
took care of Paul Erdos during the last years of his life. The two of
them got Erdos number 1, signifying them as co-authors to Erdos
himself. It is gratifying that we have PC alumni Shing-Tung Yau and
Yim-Tong Siu got Erdos numbers 2 and 3 respectively. To illustrate
the low Erdos numbers are truly rare, I give you Terence Tao (2) of
UCLA. He's the 2006 Field's Medal winner. Another famous one is Hank
Arron, the baseball player. He has Erdos number 1, from signing the
same baseball at Emory University in Atlanta when the school awarded
them honorary degrees some years ago.
If we relax the requirement of co-authoring with Erdos not only
mathematical papers but any paper (e.g., a baseball); S.S. is
entitled to have Erdos number 3, after Shing-Tung Yau's 2. I
remembered early in 2010, S.S. provide a presentation of Yau's to
Chinese Engineers and Scientists Meeting in San Diego. The title of
the presentation is the relations of math and Chinese Literature. If
any lighters throughout the years have corresponded with S.S. whether
in the old web-site or the new Octopus, they all qualify to have Erdos
number 4 (i.e., after S.S.'s 3). I know Wu Yin wrote quite many times
in octopus on many subjects that prompted S.S. to respond. Wu Yin
deserves to have Erdos number 4!
Comment by webmaster: Either I have not come to the Chit-Chat section or it no longer exists; with permission from Bob, put this article in Talk section but still label as Chit-Chat 100.
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