Monday, August 25, 2008

The history of degrees of seperation

I was surprised to find out that the idea of degrees of separation has been around longer then Kevin Bacon. Apparently in the '60s Stanley Milgram and Jeffrey Travers decided to test this theory out. They asked 296 people from Boston & Nebraska to send letters through friends to a Boston stockbroker. They were supposed to send the letter to the person who would be able to reach their target the best. Only 64 of the letters made it. The letters that made it needed 6.2 chains.

Similar experiments have shown that it's always between 6-7 chains. I wonder how I can use this to my advantage. Maybe I'll find someone who wants to give me a house complete with Moen faucets. For now I'll just use it to pick up on celebrities. Do you know anyone who can help me meet Adam Brody?

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