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1-Page Summary of The Mathematics of Love

Overview

Love is a complicated thing. It can be painful and wonderful at the same time. Mathematician Hannah Fry has carefully studied love, in order to figure out why some relationships last longer than others.

The math of love is the foundation for understanding relationships. The way to find your soulmate, as well as how to pick someone up at a bar and have them fall in love with you, can be explained through mathematics.

You’ll also learn what dating can teach us about bidding, and why 37% is the magic number.

Big Idea #1: We can calculate our chances of finding a partner – but we shouldn’t be too picky.

The search for love can sometimes leave us feeling hopeless, as though we are fighting an uphill battle. One such discouraged bachelor was mathematician Peter Backus. In 2010, he went so far as to prove that there were more intelligent alien civilizations out there than potential girlfriends for him!

He then asked himself a few questions, such as: How many women live near me? In his case – in London – four million. How many of them are single? This amounted to 50 percent, or 400,000 women.

It is estimated that 26% of women have university degrees.

How many are attractive? He calculated it at 5%, or 5,200 women.

A man named Backus calculated the number of women he would find attractive. He came up with 260. Then, he figured out how many women he could get along with and found that it was 26. Finally, he imagined a world where there were 10,000 intelligent alien civilizations in our galaxy and asked himself if his standards were too high or too low for dating success. If his criteria included 20% more women than what he originally thought was possible (and also 20% more attractive), then instead of just 26 potential partners, there would be 832!

How many are likely to find me attractive? This is about five percent or 260 women.

Finally, how many am I likely to get along well with? This is about ten percent or 26 women.

This left Backus with just

“26”

“women”. In contrast, scientists currently estimate there to be around “10” thousand intelligent alien civilizations in our galaxy.

(But if Backus had been a tad less picky and relaxed his criteria a little),

he would’ve had a substantially larger pool of potential partners.. For example,

(he assumed that he would only get on with one

in ten )< SPAN ID= SRC_STYLE_SHOW NAME=”SRC_STYLE_SHOW”> WOMEN HE WOULD GET ON WITH. Yet if

In love, it pays to be flexible with your criteria. As luck would have it, Backus eventually found a wife in 2014.

Big Idea #2: Some mathematical concepts are linked to beauty, but the golden ratio is not one of them.

Everyone has his or her own idea of beauty. However, there are some people who seem to be universally attractive. Therefore, we have to agree on some basic criteria for attractiveness.

The Mathematics of Love Book Summary, by Hannah Fry