An equation that goes looking for love in all the optimal places

6 October 2011

We know money can’t buy love, but can an equation help you find it… or are some things best left to chance? Whatever, Michael Trick has devised a formula:

Despite these handicaps, if you know how many candidates there are, there is a simple rule to maximize the chance of finding the best mate: sample the first K candidates without selecting any of them, and then take the first subsequent candidate who is the best of all you have seen. K depends on N, the total number of candidates you will see. As N gets big, K moves toward 1/e times N, where e is 2.71… So sample 36.9% of the candidates, then take the first candidate who is the best you have seen. This gives a 36.9% chance of ending up with Ms (in my case) Right.

Originally published Thursday 6 October 2011, with subsequent revisions, updates to lapsed URLs, etc.