Mathematics is the language of science . It help astronomers decipher the machinations of the cosmos , assists virologists in work out how epidemics will distribute , and engineers build the most extraordinary of creations . It also helps curious researchers work out which " Game of Thrones " character is the most influential . Spoiler alarm : It ’s not Littlefinger .
Mathematicians are known for taking time out from their normal occupations in gild to delve into the world of popular culture . latterly , one intrepid group picked apart the entire " Star Wars " universe using a series of algorithms called “ web scrapers , ” which took just two twenty-four hours to sort through every exclusive opus of information about the sprawling sci - fi saga available online .
A freestanding team has turn their numerical know - how to the hugely democratic fantasy serial " Game of Thrones . " Andrew J. Beveridge , an associate prof of mathematics at Macalester College , and Jie Shan , hisundergraduate , have penned a new newspaper publisher entitled “ internet of Thrones . ” Published in the Mathematical Association of America ’s particular publicationMath Horizons , this novel piece of inquiry line how they created a virtual social connection to calculate who really runs the show in Westeros .
make up one’s mind who the most influential character is in " Game of Thrones " would , for most people , be a gargantuan task . So many characters cross path , even briefly , and those you retrieve are in control of the situation tend todie rather abruptly .
take a leaf from the intrepid " Star Wars"-obsessed mathematician , they plow to graph hypothesis , which combine multiple numerical - base field of study to see how datum run throughmassive organization . When these systems are quantify in such a mode , they can be used to projectwhat will happenin the future .
The social web generated from " A tempest of Swords . " The size of a apex ( character period ) fit to a part ’s grade of connection with other crucial individuals . The heaviness of each line shows how often the machine-accessible characters interact . Beveridge & Shan / Math Horizons
For their study , the authors focused on the third Bible in the series , " A Storm of Swords , " explaining , “ We opted for this volume because the main narrative has matured , with the characters scattered geographically and enmesh in their own social circle . ”
A plethora of ladies , Creator , guard , mercenaries , councilmen , magic - wielders , consort , councilmen , villagers , savages , dragon - tamer , knights , slave , kings and queen were all portion values . Whenever two characters appeared within 15 words of each other , a contact was added between them . The links were “ stronger ” if they appeared more often .
In addition , the importance of each case – their position of index , or their power to directly work the consequence of situations – was also converted into a numerical value . “ Betweenness , ” the ability of theatrical role to insert themselves into societal clans , so that they pick up on and perhaps distort information not necessarily imply for them , was also appraise .
These connectedness make a societal web that revealed how each fictitious character interacted with everyone else . At a glimpse , this show how various kindred and radical of people influenced each other throughout the serial publication ; in more microscopic point , this meshwork describes precisely how influential each someone was , altering the fate of others either directly or indirectly through their actions .
Without a doubt , the loss leader in every undivided amount except betweenness , was Tyrion . This diminutive , Machiavellian , opportunistic eccentric is certainly running the show .
However , the writer betoken out that Daenerys ’ journey , even by book three , seems to be tend towards something rather grandiose . “ Daenerys really represents the future – you may see what ’s about to happen ground on the people she ’s link up with , ” Beveridge toldQuartz .
