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​A Professor Has Found The Formula For Finding 'The One’

Lauren Bell

Published 

​A Professor Has Found The Formula For Finding 'The One’

Featured Image Credit: Unsplash

A professor who is set to discuss luck and relationships on TV on Boxing Day, has found the formula to finding love and it is blowing our minds.

Mathematician Dr Hannah Fry, claims love can be predicted by a simple formula. That formula suggests your chance of settling down with the best person is linked to how many potential lovers you reject and how many you might want to date in total.

Fed up of leaving it all down to chance and Tinder? Maybe this is the answer you've been waiting for.

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She explains the formula on ideas.ted.com: "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 percent of the time).

"If you are destined to date 20 people, you should reject the first eight (where Mister or Miz Right would be waiting for you 38.42 percent of the time).

"And, if you are destined to date an infinite number of partners, you should reject the first 37 percent, giving you just over a one in three chance of success."

There is a formula to finding love, but it may not always work out as planned (Credit: Pixabay)
There is a formula to finding love, but it may not always work out as planned (Credit: Pixabay)
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She goes on further explaining if you choose to not follow the mathematical strategy and opted to settle down at random, you have just a five per cent chance of finding love, if you date 20 people in your lifetime. FIVE per cent. Ouch.

She adds: "But by rejecting the first 37 per cent of your lovers and following this strategy, you can dramatically change your fortunes, to a whopping 38.42 percent for a destiny with 20 potential lovers."

Mind blown.

Dr Hannah Fry has fond the formula for love (Credit: Paul Wilkinson)
Dr Hannah Fry has fond the formula for love (Credit: Paul Wilkinson)
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Of course, this theory has a few flaws. The most obvious is you won't know how many people are available to you to date in your lifetime - tricky to predict.

Thankfully, she has a slightly better option, which is based on time, rather than number of potential partners.

The updated formula now requires you to guess how long you expect your dating life to be.

She explains: "Say you start dating when you are 15 years old and would ideally like to settle down by the time you're 40."

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Maybe Monica and Chandler's love was a case of statistics? (Credit: Warner Bros.)
Maybe Monica and Chandler's love was a case of statistics? (Credit: Warner Bros.)

"In the first 37 percent of your dating window (until just after your 24th birthday), you should reject everyone - use this time to get a feel for the market and a realistic expectation of what you can expect in a life partner.

"Once the rejection phase has passed, pick the next person who comes along who is better than everyone who you have met before."

Naturally all formulas have flaws. What if you reject your perfect partner because you find him aged 20 and think he can't possibly be the one?

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Well, he's probably not going to have you back when you realise ten years later nobody else is better and you've messed up.

Should love ever be figured out using a formula? (Credit: Pexels)
Should love ever be figured out using a formula? (Credit: Pexels)

So if you ask us, maths doesn't really have much of a place when it comes to love.

But if you're more scientifically minded, you'll no doubt enjoy Royal Institution Christmas lecturer Hannah Fry's talk 'How to Get Lucky,' which will air on BBC Four on 26th December - something to get stuck into when you've had enough of board games.

It will delve into the secrets behind luck, love and why we choose everything from clothes to Netflix films and who we marry - apparently they are all influenced by computer algorithms.

Even if you choose to ignore the maths, it sounds like a pretty interesting watch with live experiments and demos.

Royal Institution Christmas Lectures airs on Boxing Day on BBC Four at 8pm

Topics: TV and Film, Sex and Relationships, Life, TV Entertainment

Lauren Bell
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