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A group of British applied mathematicians have reduced at least one part of dating to a mathematical model...

A team of applied mathematicians created a sequential calculation as a model of dating. The new study, designed to explore the role of gift-giving in courtship, appears online in the biological science journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

According to the model's creator, Robert Seymour, a math professor at the university, this model reduces dating to a collection of numbers.

The researchers assigned points to an array of courtship behaviors, including gift-giving. The computer considered the hypothetical facts, mulled over a few variables and calculated which behaviors would result in the highest score for the imaginary male or female dater.

This is what applied mathematicians do. They look at these kinds of outcomes and interpret them in a biological framework.

Because the goal was to understand the role of gift-giving, the researchers varied the type of gift the man could give. (Political correctness aside, it was a given that the man was the pursuer and gift-giver.)

...a model whose results will surprise absolutely nobody.

Oh, just read it.

Posted by Mitch at August 10, 2005 12:05 PM | TrackBack