] We study empirically how fame of WWI fighter-pilot aces,
] measured in numbers of web pages mentioning them, is
] related to their merit or achievement, measured in
] numbers of opponent aircraft destroyed. We find that on
] the average fame grows exponentially with achievement; to
] be precise, there is a strong correlation (~0.7) between
] achievement and the logarithm of fame. At the same time,
] the number of individuals achieving a particular level of
] merit decreases exponentially with the magnitude of the
] level, leading to a power-law distribution of fame. A
] stochastic model that can explain the exponential growth
] of fame with merit is proposed. The model also provides
] likelihood of deviations from expected fame; it predicts,
] that the odds to be ten times more famous than expected
] from one's merit are ten in a million, while the odds to
] be ten times less famous are as high as one in ten.

[cond-mat/0310049] Theory of Aces: Fame by chance or merit?