18 - Let's play a game!

You know the deal. You're at work. Most of the internet is blocked off when you're at work. Facebook is inaccessible, YouTube is off-limits and even Pathetic Motorways can't be clicked on.

But Wikipedia... ah, Wikipedia, my old friend. How you've guided me through hours, days, weeks of procrastination and helped me to learn about things I never even knew existed. Or knew could ever exist. Or wanted to know.

I've made edits, I've read about everything from World War I to Margaret Thatcher to The Importance of Being Earnest, and I've clicked and clicked and clicked. The hyperlinks from one page to another are fantastic, and often lead you down paths far, far away from that which you wanted to progress (work, for one thing).

So, let's play a little game. The idea in this is to go to a random Wikipedia page (if you so desire, there's a Random Article link on the left hand side in the navigation pane). When I clicked, it took me to Buków, which is a town in Poland.

When you have your random page, click on the first hyperlink in the main text, not any italic text which appears above the lead paragraph (for me, this was Poland). Then keep clicking the first hyperlink that links to a proper wikipedia article (i.e. not Wiktionary or Help pages, or any outside website) until you get to a page you've seen before in the chain or you reach a page which has no hyperlinks (this is unlikely, but possible).

For example, the Buków-Poland chain went like this:

• Buków
• Poland
• Polish
• Official language
• Language
• Symbol
• Object
• Object (philosophy)
• Philosophy
• Ethics
• Philosophy

Which is where the chain ends. Sadly, this one didn't really turn out as well as I was hoping. All language-based. Let's try another.

• Secure operating system
• Security-focused operating system
• Operating system
• Microsoft Windows
• Software
• Collection
• Collection (horse)
• Spring (device)
• Elastic
• Deformation
• Engineering Mechanics
• Physical sciences
• Natural science
• Science
• Latin
• Indo-European language
• Language
• Symbols
• Objects
• Object (philosophy)
• Philosophy
• Ethics
• Philosophy

...Hang on a minute - this one ends with philosophy too! This one was awesome, covering systems and software, collecting and physics, before ending up back on philosophy again.

In fact, all of the following random articles ended up on the philosophy page:

• Hindu Temples in Thrissur Rural, a list of Hindu Temples in Thrissur, a district in India. (17 clicks)
• Qadi Yusuf, one of two Middle-Eastern people. (11 clicks)
• Victoria: Revolutions, a computer game expansion pack. (27 clicks)
• Theerathep Winothai, a Thai football player. (9 clicks)
• Nicholas Medforth-Mills, one of the heirs to the now-defunct Romanian throne. (10 clicks)
• Stuff (cloth), a type of thickly woven cloth. (17 clicks)
• Engaewa similis, a species of crayfish. (20 clicks)
• 23018 Annmoriarty, a main-belt asteroid discovered in 1999. (11 clicks)
• Schleuniger, an international group of companies based in Switzerland. (15 clicks)
• Robert Colquhoun, a Scottish painter. (20 clicks)

This finding is, I believe, incredible.

It is also worth noting, that if one does the opposite, and takes the last Wikipedia hyperlink in an article (ignoring any "See also" and reference sections - using the main body text only), then going from Philosophy, one ends up eventually getting to the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season which cycles between itself and the 2004 season.

In summary, then, Chew's law states:

All Wikipedia first links tend towards the Philosophy page

There. Now, get back to work.

P.S. If anyone finds a first-link route which is either fascinating or doesn't end at the Philosophy page, then please post it in the comments page and I shall add your addendum to Chew's law.