Is there a formula which explains how we fall in love? Something that helps us approximate how likely we are to find true love?
Before we get to the maths behind this phenomenon we call love, let's see how to define the things we're gonna calculate, approximate & assess..
Well, the Oxford dictionary defines the words-
1.'love'as:-
Noun-An intense feeling of deep affection.
Verb-Feel a deep romantic or sexual attachment (to someone).
2.'probability' as:-
Mass noun-The extent to which something is likely to happen or be the case.
Ok, let's get started & on our way then...From time immemorial, man has been defining, refining & glorifying this thing called 'love'. Monuments have been erected, poems composed, essays running into tens of thousands of words written to glorify it..There's even a saint who wants you to send Hallmark cards, flowers, & gifts to your lover, exactly on February 14th, every year!! Statistics are available for almost everything ( although I'm reminded of a joke which goes-'90% of the statistics are cooked up on the spot!!')What statistics are available with regards to love??
Let's see.....
Men are likely to fall in love at first sight, more than women (48% vs. 28%).*[From a survey of 80,000 people from around the world]
Men also crave romance more than women.*
Most human beings REALLY fall in love, twice in their lives.+[From a survey of 2000 people]
One in twenty adults had been heartbroken more than five times in their lives.#[From a survey covering 2000 people]
For 75% of the adults, the definition of love changes as they get older.#
25% of the adults have been in love with two people at the same time.#
The survey also found that the typical adult fell in love for the first time at the tender age of 19 and dated four to five people before they met 'the one'.#
Love is now big business worth an annual $ 4 billion internationally and growing at 70 per cent a year-with high-tech venture capitalists, psychologists and software engineers reaping vast rewards.%
Quite a lot of information we've taken in there...
Now let's bring in the picture of finding your soulmate, the only person suited to be your romantic partner...
"Our universe grants every soul a twin—a reflection of themselves—the kindred spirit – And no matter where they are or how far away they are from each other—even if they are in different dimensions, they will always find one another. This is destiny; this is love."-Julie Dillon
"We’ll assume your soul mate is set at birth. You know nothing about who or where they are, but — as in the romantic cliché — you’ll recognize each other the moment your eyes meet.
Right away, this raises a few questions. For starters, is your soul mate even still alive? A hundred billion or so humans have ever lived, but only seven billion are alive now (which gives the human condition a 93% mortality rate). If we’re all paired up at random, 90% of our soul mates are long dead.
The number of strangers we make eye contact with each day is hard to estimate. It can vary from almost none (shut-ins or people in small towns) to many thousands (a police officer in Times Square). Let’s suppose you lock eyes with an average of a few dozen new strangers each day. (I’m pretty introverted, so for me that’s definitely a generous estimate.) If 10 percent of them are close to your age, that’s around 50,000 people in a lifetime. Given that you have 500,000,000 potential soul mates, it means you’ll only find true love in one lifetime out of 10,000."@
Ok, so we started off looking for answers, & I guess we ended up with more questions!!...Have we opened our minds up a bit in the process? I'd say yes..I believe that Oasis'(a very famous British Rock band) lyrics are apt here...
"Look into the wall of my mind's eye
I think I know, but I don't know why
The questions are the answers you might need..."
That's all for now...
Here are the links for further reading...
+ http://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/falling-in-love-twice_n_3817986
@ https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/09/02/the-science-of-soul-mates-xkcd/