The Drake Equation Applied To Finding An Ideal Mate

So there's this equation that is used to determine the possibility of intelligent life on other planets in our universe and apparently a couple of physicists extrapolated this to apply to (funny enough) the scant likelihood of finding an adequate girlfriend within our cities.

So let's see how this affects me with rough numbers just for demonstration purposes.

• I start with the population of the metro Atlanta area. (Roughly 429,000).
• Then from there, I whittle it down to my age range: we'll say from the age 24-35.
• This leaves me with about 35% or so of the population.
• Then I'm looking for a college grad, which knocks out about 3/4ths.
• Then I realize I need a single girl, which lowers the odds even more.
• How many of those remaining girls are attractive to me?
• Of those girls, how many are attracted to me?

Then all of that is before I really even get to know anything personal about them; their religious views (or lack thereof), their political leanings, temperament, etc.

Basically I'm probably left with relatively little chance of finding a girl that would be good for me. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not desperate for a girlfriend at this point, but it really puts the whole 'perfect match' thing into perspective when physicists are using an equation normally used for determining the existence of intelligent life on other planets and applying it to finding an intelligent partner here on our home planet.

Then again, using this equation at all probably says a lot about one's singlehood.  Maybe.

For the actual paper on this, check this out. (PDF)

Update: I found out This American Life did an episode on this.  Check it out.