Posted on 01/13/2010 8:06:35 PM PST by Fractal Trader
A man studying in London has taken a mathematical equation that predicts the possibility of alien life in the universe to explain why he can't find a girlfriend.
Peter Backus , a native of Seattle and PhD candidate and Teaching Fellow in the Department of Economics at the University of Warwick, near London, in his paper, " Why I don't have a girlfriend: An application of the Drake Equation to love in the UK ," used math to estimate the number of potential girlfriends in the UK.
In describing the paper on the university Web site he wrote "the results are not encouraging. The probability of finding love in the UK is only about 100 times better than the probability of finding intelligent life in our galaxy."
Click Liverpool reported that Backus, 30, found that of the 30 million women in the UK, only 26 would be suitable girlfriends for him. His equation looked at the total number of women in the country, then narrowed it down using relevant factors including the number of women in London; the number of "age-appropriate" women (those aged between 24-34); women with a college degree; and those who Backus would find physically attractive.
In the paper Backus summarized that on a given night out in London there is a 0.0000034 percent chance of meeting a woman that meets his criteria and who is also interested in him. That makes his odds of finding a girlfriend only about 100 times better than finding an alien.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxcharlotte.com ...
Single, celibate, and sane work well also.
/johnny
“Lower your standards....increase your odds.”
As in...she has a great personality.
Less time at the blackboard working on arcane equations, more time in the student union drinking coffee and chatting.......
A little prayer might raise the odds.
“The more educated and intelligent one is, the fewer potential mates will be available.”
Try being a big-busted red-head with a genius IQ.
Does he include the location where he usually hangs out in the evening or weekends to his model? If he never goes anywhere, instead just stay at home and calculate the probability of meeting a woman of that age group and educational background, it’s no wonder that the probability to find a girlfriend becomes asymptote...
Tell women you’re rich, and your odds will improve dramatically.
It was a joke.
Yes, AKA the Tiger Woods weighting factor.
The student unions usually have the largest bars in the area... and 5 or 6 pints makes the women look a lot more attractive...:^)
They are not dry like US universities.
As was my comment.
true, smokingfrog, he should go to church.
My husband’s bf used to complain about how there were no good women. Even if he ever found a potential girlfriend, they’d always do him wrong. Years had gone by, and there was no one for him. No one, no one, no one.
Where do you look, T? I asked him.
“Bars. . .” he answered.
Might work for a girl. For a guy, the big-busted thing is probably a handicap.
Not-A-Ping????
Years ago I used the same formula but began with the 3 billion women in the entire world before narrowing down. It came out to about a couple dozen good candidates, and dividing by the world's 60 million mi.2 land mass gave me a possible wife for every 2,400 mi.2. So the odds were that I had to be willing to travel at least a couple thousand miles to find a good wife, so I did and lived happily ever after.
You can complain about it to me all night long. And how many standard deviations above the norm is your IQ. I figure if we are within a few points it shouldn’t matter.
Just sent that to a Brit friend. EPIC LOLs.
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