Editing Kevin Bacon (section)

== Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon ==
{{Main|Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon}}
Bacon is the subject of the [[trivia]] game titled "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon", based on the idea that, due to his prolific [[Big screen|screen]] career covering a diverse range of genres, any Hollywood actor can be linked to another in a handful of steps based on their association with Bacon. The name of the game derives from the idea of [[six degrees of separation]]. Initially, Bacon was dismayed by the game but the [[Internet meme|meme]] stuck; eventually, he embraced it, forming the charitable initiative [[SixDegrees.org]], a [[social networking service]] intended to link people and charities to each other.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sixdegrees.org/ |title=Six Degrees |access-date=January 2, 2008}}</ref>

The measure of proximity to Bacon has been mathematically formalized as the [[Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon|Bacon number]] and can be referenced at websites including Oracle of Bacon, which is in turn based upon Wikipedia data (and formerly from [[IMDb|Internet Movie Database]] data). In 2012, Google added a feature to their search engine, whereby searching for an actor's name followed by the words "Bacon Number" will show the ways in which that actor is connected to Kevin Bacon.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.webmonkey.com/2012/09/easter-egg-google-connects-the-dots-for-bacon-number-search/|title=Easter Egg: Google Connects the Dots for 'Bacon Number' Search|work=webmonkey|date=September 13, 2012|first=Scott|last=Gilbertson|access-date=September 13, 2012}}</ref> This feature is no longer active.

A similar measurement exists in the mathematics community, where one measures how far one is removed from co-writing a mathematical paper with the prolific and itinerant mathematician [[Paul Erdős]]. This is done by means of the [[Erdős number]], which is 0 for [[Paul Erdős]] himself, 1 for someone who co-wrote an article with him, 2 for someone who co-wrote with someone who co-wrote with him, etc. People have combined the Bacon number and the [[Erdős number]] to form the [[Erdős–Bacon number]], which is the sum of the two.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/4768389/And-the-winner-tonight-is.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121112081753/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/4768389/And-the-winner-tonight-is.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 12, 2012 |title=And the winner tonight is |newspaper=Telegraph |date=May 1, 2002 |access-date=May 17, 2014}}</ref>