Six degrees of separation

Six degrees of separation (also known as the six handshakes rule) is the idea that all people are six or fewer social connections away from each other. For example, you go to a gathering, and you meet a "friend of a friend", who you can then connect to another in a maximum of six steps. 

Picture this: a while ago, a stranger came calling to my door. She was looking for an English speaker to help her with a translation.  Did I know this person?  No, I did not.  Then, pray tell, how did she end up ringing my doorbell?

Aha! the magic of 6 degrees ... and how we're all connected.

In her quest to find an English speaker, she made enquiries at a neighbourhood stationery shop, three streets away. It just so happens that a young man who was studying English, previously worked at that shop. His former colleagues directed her to a neighbourhood butchery for further information on 'the English speaker'. So off she trotted to the butcher, who happens to be the uncle to this student.  Here, she was directed to me, right next door!  

It didn't even take her six handshakes - in a hop, skip and jump - voila - she found me, a total stranger, yet still the one she was looking for.

You could say that her 'Bacon' number was 3.

What? Bacon number? This comes from the Kevin Bacon experiment. It is said that the actor Kevin Bacon, in a 1994 interview, declared that he had worked with everyone in Hollywood or someone who's worked with them. As a result, three college students invented a parlour game that became known as "Six degrees of Kevin Bacon" after watching two films on television that featured the actor back-to-back. The Bacon number of an actor is the number of degrees of separation they have from Kevin Bacon, as defined by the game.  

Have you ever thought about how far removed you are from the people you see on TV, the people on your route to work or school, some random person on the street?  What if your world was smaller than you imagined?  What if that person who consistently rudely bumps into you at the train station turns out to be the "friend of a friend of a friend?"

It's a small, small world.