English

Estimating achievement from fame

Physics and Society 2011-03-16 v2 Computers and Society History and Philosophy of Physics Applications

Abstract

We report a method for estimating people's achievement based on their fame. Earlier we discovered (cond-mat/0310049) that fame of fighter pilot aces (measured as number of Google hits) grows exponentially with their achievement (number of victories). We hypothesize that the same functional relation between achievement and fame holds for other professions. This allows us to estimate achievement for professions where an unquestionable and universally accepted measure of achievement does not exist. We apply the method to Nobel Prize winners in Physics. For example, we obtain that Paul Dirac, who is hundred times less famous than Einstein contributed to physics only two times less. We compare our results with Landau's ranking.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0906.3558,
  title  = {Estimating achievement from fame},
  author = {M. V. Simkin and V. P. Roychowdhury},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0906.3558},
  year   = {2011}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-21T13:15:20.308Z