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The mathematics of relationships Nowadays, having a boyfriend or girlfriend has become a common trend. Many view this as just a societal uplift that being alone is a disgrace and an “out” kind of thing. However that is not my point. What I am very interested in is basically to depict the present status of such relationships at this era, and putting this into a formula so as people can predict the probability of the length of relationships of 2005 and their percentage sustainability at the end of the year. That is, basically how many relationships are most likely not to break up at the end of the year, 2005. Anyways, let us begin from the very beginning - the fatal stage. The trend of “relationships forming” plays a very important role. It is very much important to identify the factors that give rise to this trend. Hence, the identified factors are as follows: time, age, magnetism (see below), exceptions and major quarrels. It seems that as time increases, the trend of more relationships also increases at a similar rate. In case you haven't noticed, nowadays, even small kids from the class of 5 start having boyfriends and going out. They, in fact, believe the more the better. In an interview with a class 5 pichi, the following was stated proudly, “I already went out with two boys, one from my class and one senior. I am getting bored with my present one so I think I'll be changing…” Say something to that! Of course girls are more into these things, while the boys are still into Pokemon and lollipops at this stage of life due to…well, hormonal issues. So we see that as time increases, the age factor decreases. Therefore, we can state that relationships are directly proportional to time (that the number of relationships increases with flowing time - equation 1) whereas age is inversely proportional to time (that as time runs, kids of lower ages start to get involved in relationships, with a limit of course equation 2), as follows: Key: Relationships = R, age = A, time = T, constant = k Therefore, we can state that Relationships primarily depend on the product of these two factors: age and time. Now here, Time refers to our period, which is 2005, and therefore can be considered stationary. So we can consider the value of T to be 1. The Age factor has ranging values according to the real ages of the participants in the relationship. A survey was carried out of the number of relationship at variable ages from different sources i.e. places. The average value was taken and the probability value has been used. From the intense research, the following table shows the ages and their representing probability values. Age (A) range of the couples Probability value Now, let us take into consideration some other common factors. For example, the attraction of either of the couples towards other public, that is other guys or gals. We shall declare this factor as “magnetism”. Assuming that this is the only factor which causes the break up of a relationship due to its adverse effect of decreasing the interest towards each other (the couples), we can say that the time after which a typical relationship breaks arranged on to an averaged scale will give us the constant. Confused? Well, let us take an example. Joshim and Bobita have been in relationship for 5 years after which they broke up. With our assumption that magnetism is the only factor for which they broke up, we can say that the attraction between the couples, on an average, declined by 1/5 per annum of the original amount. That is, if at the beginning of the relationship, the attraction between them was 100, after 1 year it was decreased by 20(1/5 of 100) to 80. After 2 years, it was further decreased by 20 to 60. Therefore, at the end of 5 years, the attraction value between Joshim and Bobita will have decreased to 0 causing the break up. For more accuracy, we have carried out another survey of 113 couples that have broken up. The results were put into a similar scale and the following graph shows the final result: The equation of the graph is Y= -3/2X + 10. This is just the result of average values taken from 113 relationships of various ages, preferably age range 17-22. Also, an attraction value of 0 doesn't mean the relationship will break only then; the relationship can also break at values of 4 or 5. This varies from person to person. However, at a negative value, hate is more probable than love, which is common in many scenes. Please note that this magnetism factor can be avoided by continuous re-attachment, re-inspiration and re-interestation between the couples. Anyways, back to the Formula. The adverse effect of magnetism can be taken into account into the Formula by using the gradient of the equation. From the equation, we can see that the gradient is -3/2. The negative can be neglected as this comes from the decreasing slope. Hence, the value stands as 3/2 which we will call as the magnetism constant (M). This decreasing trend from the original value is due to magnetism (equation - 3) and can be incorporated into the Formula as follows: We already know, R = AT However, we also have to consider that this value of M occurs for both the male and the female involved in the relationship. Therefore M should be doubled. Hence the Formula now stands as: So, until now we have taken into consideration the liable formation of relationships and the liable breakdown of relationships. Let us now consider another effect exceptions. There are always exceptions accompanying any relationship. For example, the magnetism effect is not viable for all relationships where in some cases the attraction between the two (the duplet that is) actually increases. These are quite rare over long periods and we shall call them “The Anomalies.” Gruelling and time consuming studies with reference to data from the RIC (Relationship Information Centre) have shown that there are on average 5% exceptional cases per annum. Therefore, we can continue the Formula as follows: (Regular Cases) 100 5 = 95 One last effect which I believe should be taken into consideration is the frequency of quarrels between the couples. Quarrels are eminent and each quarrel plays a major effect on R, that is a decreasing effect. Now, the average number of major quarrels that occur inside a sane couple is 1 per month, which means 12 per year, or we can say 12 per 48 weeks. This is that 12/48 = 0.25 out of 1.00; 25% of the intimacy of a relationship is destroyed by major quarrels! Since we are searching for relationships that will last it should be 1.00 0.25 = 0.75 (75%) which is the Quarrels per week constant, Q. The Formula now, is as follows: R = {(A 2M) / 0.95}× Q Eureka!!! Here we have it. Now let's use the formula to solve for a 15 year old couple. Inserting A = 27.5 (from the chart) we get…………… 19.34%! A sane 15 year old couple has 19.34% chance of going through this year, as per the Formula!!! For participants in a couple with varying ages, such a 22 year old male and an 18 year female relationship, we take the average of the number of participants. For example, in this case, from the chart we have 67.5 for 22 and 45 for 18. Therefore, the average of the two is (67.5 + 45) / 2 = 56.25. Inserting this into the Relationship formula, we get……… 42.04%, which is a really good probability! Thus, this is the contemporary Relationship Formula. However, in order for this Formula to work, three major assumptions have been taken as follows: 1. That only the aforementioned factors will have the major effect in a relationship. Age (A) range of the couples % of the number of participants likely to pass the year 2005 So those couples who are still intact on the 31st of December of 2005, don't celebrate yet; there is still a percentage chance to break up. Celebrate on the 1st of January, 2006 instead. For now, try out the Formula, calculate the probability of you still being with your loved ones and get ready for the consequences. As for the Anomalies… ENJOY!!! By Adnan M. S. Fakir A night's tale The dream castle Reflections on sands Sites unseen |
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