Most Awesomest Homework Problem Ever

9.53

The object of the Kevin Bacon Game is to link a movie actor to Kevin Bacon via shared movie roles. The minimum number of links is an actor's Bacon number. For instance, Tom Hanks has a Bacon number of 1; he was in Apollo 13 with Kevin Bacon. Sally Fields has a Bacon number of 2, because she was in Forrest Gump with Tom Hanks, who was in Apollo 13 with Kevin Bacon. Almost all well-known actors have a Bacon number of 1 or 2. Assume that you have a comprehensive list of actors, with roles (for instance, see the Internet Movie Database files: actor.list.gz and actress.list.gz at ftp://ftw.fu-berlin.de/pub/misc/movies/database.) and do the following:
a. Explain how to find an actor's Bacon number.
b. Explain how to find the actor with the highest Bacon Number.
c. Explain how to find the minimum number of links between two arbitrary actors.

lol, wut? Where on Earth do textbook authors come up with these questions?