Man Uses Drake Equation To Explain Girlfriend Woes 538
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.'"
wellll. (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.
Where have I heard this before? Oh yeah... (Score:5, Informative)
This is taken directly from this episode of This American Life [thisamericanlife.org] with Ira Glass.
-l
What are the odds? (Score:4, Informative)
He should try lottery or SETI@Home next. From TFA:
But in the end Backus defied the odds. Asylum reported that Backus has a girlfriend of about six months. "She's from London," he told the Web site. "And she meets all my criteria."
Good for him, but not very good for his theory...
Big Bang Theory (Score:4, Informative)
idle (Score:0, Informative)
WTF. This belongs in idle where I won't see it.
Re:idle (Score:1, Informative)
Agreed. How does this in ANY way belong in the science section of slashdot?
Drake equation aside... (Score:1, Informative)
Something similar was done in 1999. http://en.nothingisreal.com/wiki/Why_I_Will_Never_Have_a_Girlfriend
This man is not studying in London (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Big Bang Theory (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Looking at the criteria he used... (Score:5, 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.
Re:Ironically (Score:4, Informative)
Okay - so how do you POSSIBLY apply a statistical analysis on something as subjective as a womans physical attractiveness?
Just walk around with a notebook and walk around, writing down whether women you see are attractive or not. When you've seen 50-ish women, you've got a decent statistical sample.
Re:Stunt (Score:3, Informative)
The Drake Equation is the biggest load of BS to ever grace anything science related. It can be summarized thusly:
P = ( Unknown [ (Unknown + Unknown) / Unknown ^ 2 ] + Unknown ) * F
Where:
F = Frank Drake's affinity for attention.
Re:wellll. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Stunt (Score:4, Informative)
that "good data" doesn't help the equation, not when the last four multiplicands could be zero or any other number up to the number of stars (dead or alive) that radiate heat in the milky way.
Re:Ironically (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Ironically (Score:3, Informative)
Okay - so how do you POSSIBLY apply a statistical analysis on something as subjective as a womans physical attractiveness?
Actually, a study found that what men find attractive is rather consistent.
http://www.wfu.edu/news/release/2009.06.25.a.php [wfu.edu]
Re:Stunt (Score:3, Informative)
no, not as originally presented by Drake, it calculates the "number of extraterrestrial civilizations in our galaxy". Earth is not included.
Re:In Soviet Russia... (Score:2, Informative)
LOL
I am from Eastern Block and I can guarantee you most chicks over here dig money and confidence. Good luck with your illusion!
Re:Big Bang Theory (Score:3, Informative)
Re:In Soviet Russia... (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.
Re:Ironically (Score:3, Informative)
Okay - so how do you POSSIBLY apply a statistical analysis on something as subjective as a womans physical attractiveness?
Just walk around with a notebook and walk around, writing down whether women you see are attractive or not. When you've seen 50-ish women, you've got a decent statistical sample.
Walk around noting stuff win a notebook in London, and you will probably get arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
Re:Stunt (Score:4, Informative)
Anyone who finds a girlfriend through the internet is a fucking loser.
Everyone who ever finds a girlfriend at all does so through social networking. Just like anything else in the world, adding "on the Internet" doesn't change anything.