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I read somewhere that the "6 degrees of separation" thing was a little exaggerated - that it's actually somewhere between 6 and 30.
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6 degrees is more likely than 30, if you think about it....
Let's say that you "know" 20 people (conservative estimate unless you really are a geek
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Well, assuming that every other person also knows 20 people...again, conservative estimate...the numbers grow exponentially for each degree of separation...
i.e.
Me -> 20 people = 20^1 = 20 total people
My friend knows 20 people who might know the person:
Friend -> 20 people => 20^2 = 400 total people
That person knows 20 people who *might* know the person:
Person w -> 20 people => 20 ^ 3 = 8000 total people
I think you can see where I am going with this...
Person x -> 20 people => 20 ^ 4 = 160,000 total people
person y -> 20 people => 20 ^ 5 = 3.2 million total people
person z -> 20 people => 20 ^ 6 = 640 million total people
(including Dubya)
30 degrees of separation is possible, however, it would have to be a whole lot of lonely, antisocial people