Have you ever thought about how great the odds are against you finding that one perfect person for you?
Peter Backus had. In 2010, the British researched penned a paper called “Why I Don’t Have a Girlfriend”. The academic paper used the Drake equation to calculate Backus’ chance of finding love, with the odds coming out at 1 in 285,000.
Over the weekend, Peter Backus got married.
Speaking to TODAY.com, Backus said of the paper; “It was supposed to a be a little joke, just a silly tongue-in-cheek research paper.
“I was reading a book by Carl Sagan about the Drake equation, and the idea just occurred to me that you could do the same thing with any population.”
Backus, who had been single for three years when he wrote the paper, used the Drake equation, written in 1961 by radio astronomer Frank Drake. The equation was initially used to estimate how many alien civilizations exist in our galaxy.
Backus used it to determine how many women he could meet in his area, who would fit his preferences, and the odds suggested only 26 women in the entire United Kingdom could be his potential girlfriend. The paper drew plenty of media attention and was even mentioned on hit comedy series The Big Bang Theory.
Backus’ paper was mentioned in an episode of The Big Bang Theory
Two years after he published his paper, Backus met Rose, a London woman who met all of his criteria, and fell in love.
“I met her at a dinner with some friends in London,” Backus told TODAY.com
“It was just a chance meeting, just a friend of a friend.”
Backus and his fiancé were set to tie the knot over the weekend, and with luck like that, we’re hoping they’re headed for Vegas on their honeymoon.
