Mathematics can prove to be a crucial tool for understanding love by negotiating its complicated, often baffling, sometimes infuriating and always interesting mysteries, says maths expert Hannah Fry.
In "The Mathematics of Love: Patterns, Proofs, and the Search for the Ultimate Equation", brought out as part of TED Books, the author uses her models to study patterns in human behaviour from riots and terrorism to trade and shopping.
"Love, like most things in life, is full of patterns: from the number of sexual patterns we have in our lifetime to how we choose who to message on an internet dating website. And mathematics is ultimately the study of patterns - from predicting the weather to the fluctuations of the stock market, the movement of planets or the growth of cities. These patterns twist and turn and warp and evolve just as the rituals of love do," the book, published by Simon & Schuster, says.
Simple mathematical rules, according to the author, can be of great use in life and love. "That's why all mathematicians make famously excellent lovers (and dancers). Who knew math could give you such a lovely and moral way to live?"
The book seeks to answer several questions like what are the chances of finding love, how important is beauty, how to maximise a night on the town and how to live happily after marriage. It also talks about online dating, the dating game, the maths of sex and settling down.
According to Fry, her aim was not to "replace any of the other excellent sources available on the science of human connection" but "offer a different perspective on the most talked-about subject in the history of human existence, using mathematics as a guide".
