The maths quirk that can cheer you up if youre feel...

What’s Happening

Real talk: If you feel like the least popular person among your friends, then a handy piece of maths might improve your mood, says Peter Rowlett Mathematics The maths quirk that can cheer you up if you’re feeling unpopular If you feel like the least popular person among your friends, then a handy piece of maths might improve your mood, says Peter Rowlett By Peter Rowlett 18 February 2026 Facebook / Meta Twitter / X icon Linkedin Reddit Email Orlando Gili/Millenium Images Your friends are likely to have more friends than you do.

Dont worry, its nothing personal. Its just about how networks organise. (and honestly, same)

We can represent a friendship group as a network.

The Details

Draw a node (dot) for each person and a line between two nodes if those two people are friends. For a group of people who interact in person or online, we can build a representation of friendship connections.

This network allows us to explore questions such as the number of degrees of separation. If someone is a friend of your friend, they are connected to you at degree 2.

Why This Matters

Their friends are at degree 3, and so on. How many links must we follow to get from one person to another? Connections tend to cluster together.

Scientists and researchers are watching this development closely.

Key Takeaways

• Think of a group of friends – people you live near, some of your work colleagues or people who attend your astrophotography club.
• Its likely that a lot of these people are friends with each other, so many of your friends of friends in the group are also your friends directly.
• But there are also far-reaching connections.
• Your old friend who moved to another country has their own dense cluster of friends who all go to their soap-carving club.

The Bottom Line

If you follow those more distant connections, you can quickly reach beyond your own network. An old colleague who took a job in London goes wargaming with a barista working near parliament, and suddenly you are only a few degrees away from a handshake with the prime minister.

Sound off in the comments.