How well do you know your "friend's friend"?
There is a hypothesis called Six Degrees of Separation.
It suggests that all people and things are connected within six steps,
so you should be able to become indirectly acquainted with people all over the world through friends of friends.
There are actually verified examples, and the credibility of this story seems to be quite high.
This game applies that hypothesis to Wikipedia.
Wikipedia articles contain a vast number of links to other articles.
For example, let's take a look at the article about "Napoleon".
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte was a military leader and revolutionary during the French Revolution,
who became Emperor Napoleon I of the First French Empire.
He restored order after the French Revolution and established a military dictatorship.
He built an army called the Grande Armée and fought the Napoleonic Wars against European countries
that sought to intervene in the French Revolution.
Through numerous victories and marriage policies,
he brought most of the European continent under his control, except for the territories of Britain,
the Russian Empire, and the Ottoman Empire.
After being defeated by the Coalition,
he experienced a brief restoration known as the Hundred Days and died at the age of 51 on the British island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic.
The blue parts are links to other articles. There are many of them.
Let's click on "Saint Helena" among them.
Saint Helena
Saint Helena is a volcanic island in the South Atlantic Ocean,
a British territory. Its geographical location is 15°56'S, 5°42'W.
It is an isolated island 1,840 km from the African continent, with a population of about 4,200.
Administratively, it is part of the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha,
and its central settlement, Jamestown, is the capital of this overseas territory.
We have moved to the article on "Saint Helena".
From here, let's click on "British Overseas Territories".
British Overseas Territories
The British Overseas Territories are territories under the political authority of Britain,
excluding England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
Next, let's click on "Wales".
Wales
Wales is one of the four constituent countries that make up Britain.
Wales is located in the southwest of the island of Great Britain,
bordered by the Bristol Channel to the south, England to the east,
and the Irish Sea to the west and north.
It once produced abundant underground resources, including coal,
which supported the Industrial Revolution in Britain.
Next, let's click on "Coal".
Coal
Coal is a substance formed from ancient plants that were buried in the ground before they completely decomposed,
and then underwent metamorphosis over a long period of time due to geothermal heat and pressure.
It can be considered a type of fossil.
As one of the fossil fuels, it is used for thermal power generation and steelmaking,
but it emits a large amount of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, when burned.
Let's click on "Carbon Dioxide".
Carbon Dioxide
Carbon dioxide is one of the oxides of carbon,
represented by the chemical formula CO2.
It is the most representative oxide of carbon on Earth, including in the Earth's atmosphere,
and is easily produced by the combustion of carbon and organic compounds.
The gas is known as carbon dioxide,
the solid as dry ice,
the liquid as liquid carbon dioxide, and the aqueous solution as carbonic acid or carbonated water.
It is also known that the main component of the atmospheres of Venus and Mars is carbon dioxide.
Let's click on "Dry Ice".
Dry Ice
Dry ice is the trade name for solid carbon dioxide.
It is used for cold storage and transportation of perishable foods. It is also known as solid carbonic acid or solid carbon dioxide.
So, from "Napoleon" to "Dry Ice", we reached it in 6 links.
Two seemingly unrelated words, but we reached them in just 6 steps. Fascinating, isn't it?
Now, how about this one?
Dog → Mars
See if you can reach it within "6 steps".
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