The Mathematics of Love

in 2010 mathematician and long-standing singleton Peter Backus even calculated that there were more intelligent alien civilizations in the galaxy than potential girlfriends for him to date.

Say you start dating when you are fifteen years old and would ideally like to settle down by the time you’re forty. In the first 37 per cent of your dating window (until just after your twenty-fourth birthday), you should reject everyone; use this time to get a feel for the market and a realistic assessment of what you can expect in a life partner. Once this rejection phase has passed, pick the next person that comes along who is better than everyone that you have met before.

It tells you that if you are destined to date ten people in your lifetime, you have the highest probability of finding The One when you reject your first four lovers (where you’d find them 39.87 per cent of the time). If you are destined to date twenty people, you should reject the first eight (where Mister or Ms Right would be waiting for you 38.42 per cent of the time). And, if you are destined to date an infinite number of partners, you should reject the first 37 per cent, giving you just over a one in three chance of success