Six Degrees Seperation Theory

Arapahoe

6 Jul 10, 10:09

For those who have not known this term....6 degrees seperation...here's what it mean....

Six degrees of separation is the theory that anyone on the planet can be connected to any other person on the planet through a chain of acquaintances that has no more than five intermediaries. The theory was first proposed in 1929 by the Hungarian writer Frigyes Karinthy in a short story called "Chains."

an Experiments

In 1967, American sociologist Stanley Milgram devised a new way to test the theory, which he called "the small-world problem." He randomly selected people in the mid-West to send packages to a stranger located in Massachusetts. The senders knew the recipient's name, occupation, and general location. They were instructed to send the package to a person they knew on a first-name basis who they thought was most likely, out of all their friends, to know the target personally. That person would do the same, and so on, until the package was personally delivered to its target recipient.

the..............6th connections.

In 2001, Duncan Watts, a professor at Columbia University, continued his own earlier research into the phenomenon and recreated Milgram's experiment on the Internet. Watts used an e-mail message as the "package" that needed to be delivered, and surprisingly, after reviewing the data collected by 48,000 senders and 19 targets (in 157 countries), Watts found that the average number of intermediaries was indeed, six. Watts' research, and the advent of the computer age, has opened up new areas of inquiry related to six degrees of separation in diverse areas of network theory such as as power grid analysis, disease transmission, graph theory, corporate communication, and computer circuitry.

Arapahoe

6 Jul 10, 10:16

I am wondering if this theory can be tested within Singapore...given that we live in a small island city and it is small enough population.

So I think we can design this game to find people in this forum thru people we know until we find one actual person in club 30. Of course we must not know anybody in this forum.

to connect thru 5 intermediaries....

Arapahoe

6 Jul 10, 10:28

I supposed you cannot go around asking your intermedaries if they are on Sgforums.

BanguIzai

6 Jul 10, 13:28

that time people told me about this theory when i signed up for friendster.

Arapahoe

6 Jul 10, 16:27

remember it is 5 complete different consecutive intermedaries.

They were instructed to send the package to a person they knew on a first-name basis who they thought was most likely, out of all their friends, to know the target personally.

of course social web site help to filter the intermedaries.

Rhonda

12 Jul 10, 14:22

I'm starting to kinda believe this theory, to a certain extent. Since moving to Melbourne, I've been amazed by the friends I have who turn out to know my other friends too! I think unless one lives in a confined social circle, this theory will work. It won't work for people who are aloof loners though.

The man who was death

12 Jul 10, 16:37

play six degrees of black sabbath

find the paths between two artiste...pretty cool..

Arapahoe

12 Jul 10, 17:07

Originally posted by Rhonda:

I'm starting to kinda believe this theory, to a certain extent. Since moving to Melbourne, I've been amazed by the friends I have who turn out to know my other friends too! I think unless one lives in a confined social circle, this theory will work. It won't work for people who are aloof loners though.

i think in terms of possible for Urban cities...once it is outside the geographical district it is difficult........

Celeb are well known figure......

BanguIzai

13 Jul 10, 01:01