599: Apocalypse

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 09:34, 19 August 2012 by 36.2.80.129 (talk) (Created page with "According to Wikipedia, Paul Erdős (26 March 1913 – 20 September 1996) was a Hungarian mathematician who published more papers than any other mathematician in history, work...")
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to: navigation, search

According to Wikipedia, Paul Erdős (26 March 1913 – 20 September 1996) was a Hungarian mathematician who published more papers than any other mathematician in history, working with hundreds of collaborators. In the strip, we see the characters frantically writing a mathematics paper and getting everyone to put their name on it as co-author, before also getting the resurrected Paul Erdős to put his name on the paper. The ALT text mentions Kevin Bacon, a reference to the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon meme, so this strip plays on the idea that all mathematicians are six degrees away from Erdős. The characters are securing high "Erdős numbers" for themselves by co-authoring a paper with him.