Your Nadi number?

[PeterGustafsson]

Hi!


This might be better placed in the game threads, in which case Gav will surely fix that for me.

Another caveat: this is a parlor game, nothing useful. You have been warned.

I recently read about something called the "Bacon number". It goes like this:
1. The actor Kevin Bacon has a bacon number of 0.
2. All actors/actresses who have appeared in a movie in which KB has appeared have the Bacon number 1.
3. All actors/actresses who have appeared in a movie in which someone wth a Bacon number of 1 has appeared have the Bacon number 2.
4. Etc.

It turns out that there are hundreds of actors/actresses with quite low Bacon numbers.

As an aside, there is a similar number in the field of writing scietific articles - the Erdös number, named after an especially prolific mathematician. (A select few people have both numbers!)

For my own amusement, I suggest a similar number within fencing - the Nadi number. A person´s Nadi number would then be the shortest chain of fencers, starting with that person and ending with Aldo Nadi, in which each link consists of fencers who have fenced each other in a competition at least once.

Any guess as to what your NN would be?

I have fenced Rolf Edling, who has fenced Johan Harmenberg, who won the OG back in 1980. The must be chain from there to AN, but I do not know how long it is. How many of you can state a link from yourself to someone who has at some time won WC or OG?

I came across this topic while wikisurfing, and in the same session read up on a measurement for how influential a scientist is. It works like this. The scientist finds the largest number N for which the following is true: "Which is the largest number N, such that I have written at least N articles, all of which have been cited at least N times?" This is called the h-index.

One could of course define an analogous measure for lifetime fencing activity:"Which is the largest number N, such that I have competed in at least N competitions, and at all of them placed better that at least N other fencers?"

Would such a measure say anything useful about a fencer which could not be at least as well be described by any current measure of fencing profiency?

This happens to be what I consider fun stuff to read/think about, if you do not agree with that sentiment - well, I warned you upfront.


Have a nice time!

Peter Gustafsson
Who, in is time away from f.net, has caught a 11.5 pound, 38-inch pike. Hooray!

[Inquartata]

As a boy, my coach once took a lesson from Giorgio Santelli...who fenced Nadi.

So what is that? 3?

Also likely is: I know Sewall "Skip" Shurtz, who was a student of Ralph Faulkner, who must have known Nadi when they were both fencing masters and actors in Los Angeles...

Another 3?

In fact, Skip may have met Nadi himself. I should ask him some day...

[DavidX]

i filmed nadi's ghost helping inquartata gently form a rolling piece of clay into a vase from behind.

so is that like a what - 2?



(they totally banged after making pottery, yo)

[Mr.MightyMouse]

I fenced once in practice Ed Richards in sabre for fun - I'm sure he fenced Nadi in LA in the 60's, I also fenced in practice Nikolay Kariagin - who fenced Mangiarotti - surely there is a road from there.

[noodle]

i have a canonical bacon number of 3, and a nadi number of probably about 5, although thats just a guess

[Inquartata]

OK, I am upgrading to a 2: My coach claims to have met Nadi. No need to count Santelli any longer.

[RkfdFencer]

But meeting Nadi is not the same as getting a lesson, practicing with, or competing against Nadi. So you must decrement yourself back to a 3.

Of course, aren't you supposed to count yourself as a link in the chain? If so, Inq would be a 4 and I am likely in the double digits, if I even register on the Nadi scale at all.

[jeff]

I have a Nadi number of 2 via Giorgio Santelli.

Peter - very cool water cooler idea!

[foibles]

Micheal Marx handed me a doughnut at Balloon Fest in 198? (1986? '89?). He probably competed at some time or another with someone that competed with AN. So my guess is 3 or possibly 4.

[TBean]

Six Degrees from Kevin Bacon, the idea that no one is more than six people away from knowing Kevin Bacon. Mine is 1, as I met his father at a dinner.

I have no idea my separation from Nadi - I'll have to think if I can do better than the starting point of Marx stenciled my jacket.

[noodle]

Six Degrees from Kevin Bacon, the idea that no one is more than six people away from knowing Kevin Bacon. Mine is 1, as I met his father at a dinner.

I have no idea my separation from Nadi - I'll have to think if I can do better than the starting point of Marx stenciled my jacket.

that would be the common derivation. the original six degrees (canonical version) is done via acting credits in movies.

[fencerchica]

My first coach was a student of Giorgio Santelli, so I guess that gives me a Nadi number of 3. Woo!

[Grasshopper]

Six Degrees from Kevin Bacon, the idea that no one is more than six people away from knowing Kevin Bacon. Mine is 1, as I met his father at a dinner.

Let me guess what you ate at dinner.

[Mergs]

I fenced Michael Marx at Coaches College, so I guess that makes mine 4!

[Inquartata]

But meeting Nadi is not the same as getting a lesson, practicing with, or competing against Nadi. So you must decrement yourself back to a 3.

Ah, I failed to notice that part. Sadly, you are right, and I must indeed retreat...

Skip Shurtz did know Nadi, but I didn't ask if he had ever fenced him. ( I only got some creepy stories about the guy. )

[jeff]

( I only got some creepy stories about the guy. )

Share them! Share them! Or are they only the ones we've already seen on this board or from his books?

[Inquartata]

I dunno. There was one about a female fencer invited to come to his salle in Los Angeles for a lesson only to find the master attired only in his underwear...

And another involving why he LEFT Los Angeles, which in the interest of propriety I shall leave to your imagination...

[Empty Wallet]

As long as it was 800nm FIE underwear it ...

[Inquartata]

That was B.N. ( Before Newton. )