In honor of tonight’s Winter Formal, Burke.Word, scientific journal that it is, presents the discovery of the mathematical formula for determining your chances for finding love. Peter Backus, an American economist toiling away for the past 3 years on his PhD in England (apparently in a library dungeon), had so much free time on his hands because of his lack of romance over that period, researched and came up with the equation d’amour.
His mathematical ode to love is based on the Drake Equation, which is normally used to estimate the number of highly evolved civilizations that may exist in our galaxy. Seems about right. He re-engineered the equation slightly to account for one’s location, situation and criteria for a significant other. His results, you ask? Of the roughly 30 million women in the U.K., only 26 are potential mates for Backus. His conclusion: “On a given night in London, there is a 0.0000034 percent chance of meeting one of these special people.” And yet, there must be some other celestial magic in this equation that makes these odds work out for him and us other human variables, given that he’s had a girlfriend for 6 months after completing his loving work.
