I'm taking a data science class to break up the monotony and learned the process used to determine the social phenomena known as "six degrees of separation." It's from a study done by Jeffrey Travers of Harvard and Stanley Milgram of City College of NY. The results were published in December of 1969. The original study question was, given the size of the U.S. what is the probability that 2 randomly chosen individuals know each other. If they don't then what is the minimum number of intermediaries needed to link them. The professors sent letters to 269 random people and asked them to forward the letters to 269 randomly chosen individuals. For example I send you a letter and ask you to send it to John Smith in Atumwa, Iowa. If you know John Smith of Atumwa, Iowa then boom task complete, if you don't please forward the letter to somebody you do know in the area and ask them to push it forward. 269 letters were sent out and 69 made it to there appointed person. On average for those 69 letters that made it, it took 5.2 intermediaries to get the letter to the final destination. In 2008 a similar experiment was done using social media and a sample size around 30 million. The number of intermediaries grew to 8.0 but I think that experiment might have included individuals in other countries. Anyway, now you know. A bit of useless trivia to pass on at the water cooler or the coffee pot.
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