Calculating potential girlfriends by using the ET equation

Peter Backus, from the University of Warwick, has tallied up the variables to come up with an answer to finding a lovely lady in London suitable for himself.

For those who don't know, the Drake equation is just this:

N (the number of advanced alien civilizations) =

The average rate of star formation per year in our galaxy

multiplied by

The fraction of those stars that have planets

multiplied by

The average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets

multiplied by

The fraction of the above that actually go on to develop life at some point

multiplied by

The fraction of the above that actually go on to develop intelligent life

multiplied by

The fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space

multiplied by

The length of time such civilisations release detectable signals into space

And hey presto! You get your answer (which, depending what you put in, ranges from loads to just one, which will be us).

Anyway, enough about Drake for now as I'll be getting back to him later this month.

Backus' calculation is the same kind of deal, but he uses these numbers instead:

The rate of formation of people in the UK (ie population growth)

The fraction of people in the UK who are women

The fraction of women in the UK who live in London

The fraction of the women in London who are age-appropriate

The fraction of age-appropriate women in London with a university education

The fraction of university educated, age-appropriate women in London who he finds physically attractive

The length of time in years that he has been alive thus making an encounter with a potential girlfriend possible

Backus calculates there are 10,510 people that satisfy these basic criteria. That amounts to 0.00017 per cent of the UK's population, or 0.0014 per cent of Londoners.

No so bad you might think, however you also have to add three more factors:

Only 1 in 20 of the women find him attractive

Only half are single (and this proportion falls with increasing age)

He only gets along with 1 in 10

Once these are taken into account, the pool of potential girlfriends shrinks to a just 26.

That's 26 women in all of London. The man's gonna be single for a very long time!

Weird Science Factoid: Rice is the chief food fpr half of the people of the world. And I thought it was McDonald's burgers...

Join the Weird Science Facebook group here, or follow us on Twitter here or by searching for weirdsciblog.

Want to be sent the 'best' of the Weird Sci Blog every month? Then sign up for Weird News - a newsletter containing more info about the subjects we cover, plus some extra stuff that didn't make the blog. Interested? Subscribe by e-mailing wscience@me.com with the title 'count me in' and we'll do the rest.