But, Fry, a mathematician and the author of “The Mathematics of Love: Patterns, Proofs, and the Search for the Ultimate Equation,” hasn’t done this with a makeover or buying a new wardrobe. Instead, she created a mathematical formula for love.
Her formula takes into account mood, reaction and influence of each person in the relationship and how it affects the other. She says the healthiest relationships are one with a high “negativity threshold,“where couples are allowed to complain and voice their concerns without getting mad at each other, according to Cosmopolitan.
“Human emotion isn’t neatly ordered and rational and easily predictable,” Fry said in her 2015 TED Talk, “The mathematics of love.”
“But I also know that that doesn’t mean that mathematics doesn’t have something to offer us, because love, as well as life, is full of patterns, and mathematics is ultimately the study of patterns.”
But Linda Green, UNC mathematics professor, is said she is hesitant to believe such a formula.
“It seems a bit simplistic to me,” Green said. “Can the wife’s mood when alone really be captured in a single constant ‘W’?”
Green said external factors, such as in-laws and lay-offs should also have some sort of impact on spouse relations.
In spite of what Green believes is missing, she does appreciate how both of Fry’s equations are symmetric.
