Comparing Tie Strength with Alternative Geodesic Distance: Tom-Michael vs Jason-Michael

To compare the strength of ties between (Tom - Michael) and (Jason - Michael) using the Alternative Geodesic Distance approach, we need to calculate the distance between the two pairs of nodes.

Starting with (Tom - Michael), we can see that there are two possible paths to connect them: Tom - Sarah - Michael and Tom - John - Michael. We need to calculate the length of each path by adding up the weights of the ties between the nodes. The weights are given in the diagram as follows:

• Tom - Sarah: 2
• Sarah - Michael: 3
• Tom - John: 1
• John - Michael: 4

Therefore, the distance between (Tom - Michael) is:

• Tom - Sarah - Michael: 2 + 3 = 5
• Tom - John - Michael: 1 + 4 = 5

Both paths have the same distance, so we can say that the ties between (Tom - Michael) are equally strong.

Moving on to (Jason - Michael), we can see that there is only one path connecting them: Jason - Sarah - Michael. The weights of the ties are:

• Jason - Sarah: 1
• Sarah - Michael: 3

Therefore, the distance between (Jason - Michael) is:

• Jason - Sarah - Michael: 1 + 3 = 4

Compared to the distance between (Tom - Michael), the distance between (Jason - Michael) is shorter, indicating that the ties between (Jason - Michael) are stronger than the ties between (Tom - Michael) according to the Alternative Geodesic Distance approach.