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Man Uses Drake Equation To Explain Girlfriend Woes

Posted by samzenpus on from the less-math-more-social-science dept.

artemis67 writes "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.'"

8 of 538 comments (clear)

  1. wellll. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    What about...

    fraction of women who would find him attractive.
    fraction of women who are hetro/bisexual.
    fraction of women who wont think hes a dick for assuming love is as easy as guesstimating a few numbers.

    1. Re:wellll. by AmberBlackCat · · Score: 5, Informative

      Anybody can find a girlfriend. The question is, how difficult is it to find one that meets his criteria. If he's trying to find one that's super hot, enchanted by him, not a deranged bitch, and not in it for the money, then maybe his chances of finding alien life are actually higher.

  2. Where have I heard this before? Oh yeah... by Luyseyal · · Score: 5, Informative

    This is taken directly from this episode of This American Life with Ira Glass.

    -l

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  3. Big Bang Theory by schnits0r · · Score: 4, Informative

    Wasn't this done on the big bang theory?

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    1. Re:Big Bang Theory by Ilnmtlbnm · · Score: 5, Informative

      season 2 episode 20

  4. This man is not studying in London by Goodgerster · · Score: 5, Informative

    He is studying at the University of Warwick, which is near Coventry. It is far away from London. He is "studying in London" in the same sense that all Californians are residents of San Francisco. Has FOX News' target audience never heard of any English city besides London?

  5. Re:Looking at the criteria he used... by horza · · Score: 4, Informative

    Then he mentions he will only find 5% of "physically attractive" candidates. [snip] In other words, guy's too picky :-)

    When was the last time you were in London?

    Phillip.

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  6. Re:In Soviet Russia... by xtracto · · Score: 4, Informative

    That is a myth.

    I am currently living in ex-GDR where there are lots of "eastern bloc" countires. I've traveled to Bulgaria, Croatia and CZ and have good friends from Serbia and Syria.

    From this experiences, I have to agree with the other AC wo stated that chicks over there look for RICH and CONFIDENT guys.

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