Comments on: Alien Math Shows Why Grad Student Doesn't Have a Girlfriend

By: Marcus White

Marcus White — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 19:25:45 +0000

Wait, did Peter borrow this from an episode of the Big Bang Theory where Howard Wolowitz also calculates similar odds of hooking up using a modified Drake equation?

By: Travis Wicks

Travis Wicks — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 06:57:25 +0000

I just finished an app that calculates the number of potential Girlfriends/boyfriends you can find in a given area
its on my blog at: http://traviswicks.com/tw/ant/lcalc/index.html

By: Aliasalpha

Aliasalpha — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 05:48:10 +0000

hehe having read the whole of that guy’s rationale and seen how he words things, I can see that he’s disturbingly like me. I’d plug in the specific numbers for my crappy town in Australia and do the math mysef except that I’m scared that I’d end up with something like 0.37 of a girlfriend.

Now if it was the RIGHT 0.37…

By: JW

JW — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 01:27:32 +0000

Well, the education and age things aren’t too bad, and those don’t narrow his options down by much. The real problem is he believes 95% of educated women his age are not attractive, and that 95% of them are not attracted to him. That eliminates 399 out of 400 right there.

He’s not ugly, so I don’t see why 19 out of 20 women would be unattracted to him. Maybe it’s just low self-esteem, combined with unrealistic standards. Rather than writing this paper to prove that it’s not his fault he can’t get a date, he could figure out why other guys his age do have girlfriends and what he might have to change about himself.

By: Brian Too

Brian Too — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 00:55:20 +0000

Place too many prerequisites on the matter and the outcome will be bad, both on the page and with the women.

For instance, why does a potential mate have to be university educated? Sure it’s good, but you’re going to get hung up on that? And the age thing. Again, it’s better to be closer in age, but lots of successful matches exist in couples with divergent ages.

Lighten up, show some interest, put your best foot forward. Love is the issue at hand, not fulfilling every entry on a check list of ‘acceptable criteria’!

By: JW

JW — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 19:05:47 +0000

Unfortunately, he did the equation incorrectly. He multiplies the number of people born each year by his own age and by the fraction who are in his age range. He should either use the total number of people in the UK and the fraction who are in his age range, or the number born each year and the number of years in his age range (10).

By: Wavefunction

Wavefunction — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 15:43:35 +0000

Wait, did Peter borrow this from an episode of the Big Bang Theory where Howard Wolowitz also calculates similar odds of hooking up using a modified Drake equation?

By: AJ

AJ — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 12:08:09 +0000

Maybe not looking like AJ from the Sopranos will increase the numbers?

By: Randy McNally

Randy McNally — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 12:05:22 +0000

I wouldnt worry about it too much… once they find out you’re a geek that uses equations to work out why you cant get any.. the number of potential females interested in you will turn to zero.

He would have more luck trying to be a sugar daddy to some fit but yet stupid uni students, trust me there are plenty of them. They will dump you after uni, but then you have a batch of new ones every year. Unfortunatly this will not work on the females you want to find (educated, intelligent) because they wont need a sugar daddy who earns peanuts on lecturers salary.

The psychologist in me wonders if you ever had a girlfriend, or if you spent your whole life whining about why you dont have one.

By: Freedom Geek

Freedom Geek — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 03:16:58 +0000

I actually have done something similar only I did it what with the world population and instead of taking into account age or liking me I used all the traits I require in a woman. It came out to 69 people, in the entire world! Luckily I did not take into account the fact that while some of these traits may be individually a certain percentage they may be corralated, for instance a girl who has the traits of independence, rationality, curiosity and intelligence that I require is probably less likely to want children which I am firmly against having. This gives me hope. I also had to estimate some of the percentages but they could easily be lower than I estimated too. Ah well, I’m prepared to be alone, it is not the worst of all things.