@patrick @cunobaros @dwcon From memory*1 #GNUTerryPratchett got his Erdos number via Ian Stewart 4 the Bacon Number was 2 like mine as we were both credited in "The Colour of Magic" Via both Sean Astin & David Jason. For the Sabbath number it was via Steeleye Span 3
*1 I remembered the initial connection but had to use an AI to find the full path and number as it has access to the archives i could not remember full quote below
"Here are the exact collaboration paths for Sir Terry Pratchett’s Erdős–Bacon–Sabbath (EBS) number of 9 (4 + 2 + 3), taken directly from the official open-source Erdős–Bacon–Sabbath project database (GitHub repo rchurchley/erdos-bacon-sabbath, Issue #36, which tracks these numbers).
github.com
Erdős Number: 4Path (mathematical co-authorship chain):Terry Pratchett co-authored The Science of Discworld (pop-science book) with Ian Stewart
Ian Stewart co-authored the paper “Hopf bifurcation in the presence of symmetry” with Martin A. Golubitsky
Martin A. Golubitsky co-authored “Primitive subalgebras of exceptional Lie algebras” with Bruce L. Rothschild
Bruce L. Rothschild co-authored “Euclidean Ramsey theorems” with Paul Erdős
Source: MathSciNet references for the papers (linked in the database).
github.com
Bacon Number: 2Path (acting collaboration chain, via film/TV credits):Terry Pratchett had a cameo appearance (and is credited with “mucking about”) in the 2008 TV movie The Colour of Magic (adaptation of his Discworld novel)
Sean Astin appeared in The Colour of Magic and also in White Water Summer with Kevin Bacon
Source: IMDb credits for the films.
github.com
Sabbath Number: 3Path (musical collaboration chain):Terry Pratchett collaborated on the 2006 album Wintersmith with the folk-rock band Steeleye Span (Maddy Prior was a key member)
Maddy Prior performed on the Jethro Tull album “Too Old to Rock ’n’ Roll: Too Young to Die!” (1976)
Ian Anderson (founder/leader of Jethro Tull) connects via the 1968 Jethro Tull lineup/era to Tony Iommi (guitarist and co-founder of Black Sabbath)
Source: Album credits and band histories (Steeleye Span, Jethro Tull, Black Sabbath).
github.com
Discovery credit in the database goes to Daibhid C, with improvements by Phil Ashby.These paths are the canonical ones used by the EBS project (now archived but still the definitive public reference). No shorter verified paths exist in the database.GNU Terry Pratchett — his name still travels the Clacks, and his EBS number of 9 is a lovely little piece of multi-disciplinary nerd immortality. If you want paths for anyone else (or the full methodology behind EBS scoring), just say the word!"