"Eddington Number"

[Saddle bum]

I watched the BBC prog about Albert Einstein and Arthuer Eddington, Saturday last.

I looked up Eddington on Wiki and the little snippet below came to light. Canoot say i have ever heard of it, but it certainly an interesting concept.

"Eddington number (cycling)

Eddington is credited with devising a measure of a cyclist's long distance riding achievements. The Eddington Number in this context is defined as E, the number of days a cyclist has cycled more than E miles. For example an Eddington Number of 70 would imply that a cyclist has cycled more than 70 miles in a day on 70 occasions. Achieving a high Eddington number is difficult since moving from, say, 70 to 75 will probably require more than five new long distance rides since any rides between 70 and 74 miles will no longer be included in the reckoning.

The construct of the Eddington Number for cycling is identical to the h-index that quantifies both the actual scientific productivity and the apparent scientific impact of a scientist."

It does not state whether it is time limited, ie. the feat must be accomplished in, or over, (say) one year.

 

[mr Mag00]

that was an interesting drama, he did make reference to his cycling. i to have looked some info on him a forgotten master

 

[newbiebiker]

now make that more interesting by adding a currency sign before the figures. i do better with figures if its got signs in it, otherwise...i'm a lost soul.

 

[rich p]

The construct of the Eddington Number for cycling is identical to the h-index that quantifies both the actual scientific productivity and the apparent scientific impact of a scientist."


Que?

A bewilderingly pointless concept!

 

[Arch]

The construct of the Eddington Number for cycling is identical to the h-index that quantifies both the actual scientific productivity and the apparent scientific impact of a scientist."


Que?

A bewilderingly pointless concept!

Not that pointless. It's not that often I get to see not only an hour and a half of David Tennant, but much of the time, he was on a bike! Double Whammy!

It was a great drama, though, besides my Tennant/bike fetish.

I think what the bit you quote is saying is that the number measures not just what someone achieves, but how important/representative it is. In the case of the cycling thing, it's kind of measuring consistancy - showing that someone hasn't just done one long ride, they've done lots, and the longer the ride, the more they have to do to show that consistancy... I think.

 

[rich p]

Ah, I see

 

[HelenD123]

By sheer coincidence I've just been to a presentation which included calculation of the h-index. Not everyone's cup of tea but actually quite interesting. The h-index is a way of measuring both the quantity and the quality of an academic's output. We tried it out on Stephen Hawking and he's a 44 apparently (subject to all sorts of caveats).

 

[marinyork]

An interesting idea. Erdos and Bacon numbers used to get mentioned in lectures from time to time. Anyway my Eddington number is almost certainly somewhere in the mid 30s.

 

[mr Mag00]

i wondered if the bikes in the show would get a mention on here! lol

 

[sloe]

Low 30s.

 

[yello]

Could you work out your E number by dividing your total mileage by the number of rides? Or is that too simplistic?

 

[rich p]

Could you work out your E number by dividing your total mileage by the number of rides? Or is that too simplistic?

Too simplistic. I think that would only be your e number if you'd done that number of rides. Geddit?

 

[yello]

Which you could have?? If your average ride is less than the number of rides then it's also the E number? For instance, if I've done 60 rides totaling 3000 miles, that's an average of 50 miles per ride. As you've done more than 50 rides then 50 is also the E number.... or is that not right?

 

[vernon]

Which you could have?? If your average ride is less than the number of rides then it's also the E number? For instance, if I've done 60 rides totaling 3000 miles, that's an average of 50 miles per ride. As you've done more than 50 rides then 50 is also the E number.... or is that not right?

It's not right. You can not use averages see the following example that illustrates the flaw.

30 rides @10 miles + 30 rides @ 90 miles = 60 rides totalling 3000 miles

Average mileage = 50 miles

Number of rides at or above 50 miles = 30

Eddington number = 30 i.e. 30 rides at 30 miles or above.

 

[marinyork]

I also do over 3000 miles a year and my eddington number is nothing like 50, although my average mileage is neither 50 miles nor 60 days out per year. Where yello's example would make sense is with someone doing a club run of 60 miles most weeks over a few years.