Mathematicians Created a ‘Game of Thrones’ Social Network to Determine the Most Important Character

Norman Weiss March 31, 2016, 8:55 pm

Mathematicians created a Game of Thrones social network to determine the most important character

A mathematics professor and his student from Macalester College turned the HBO fantasy series into a social network to map out which character had the most connections. Their Network of Thrones paper, published in the Mathematical Association of America’s publication Math Horizons found that the most important character is exactly who you’d think it would be. “This is a fanciful application of network science,” says associate mathematics professor Andrew J. Beveridge . “But it’s the kind of accessible application that shows what mathematics is all about, which is finding and explaining patterns.” PLUS: HBO is reportedly spent $10 million an episode for Game of Thrones Season 6, and the cast attempted to tell the difference between famous Westerosi swords and 80s metal bands.

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