I HAVE always lived my life by logic. As a teenager, I fought with my sister over the optimal route home from school. So, it was inevitable I’d think about applying the same rationale to finding the perfect route to love.
Throughout my 20s I joked with my friends about using maths to optimise my dating strategy and find the perfect partner. Surely, I argued, there had to be a more scientifically robust way of meeting “the one” than striking up a conversation with a random stranger at a party?
Having thoroughly analysed the mathematics of online dating when I was looking for love, paradoxically I didn’t end up using them, but instead met my husband on an old-fashioned blind date when I was 28. But we did use mathematical modelling to create the table plan for our wedding.
Since then, I’ve always used little mathematical tricks to help my life and my relationship run smoothly, from divvying up household chores to brokering peace between our two girls, aged five and three, when they bicker. My husband and I even used a mathematical equation to work out where we should live.
My friends and family occasionally think I am crazy, but I love using numbers, statistics and data as a way of storytelling and shedding light on the world. After studying maths and theoretical physics at university, followed by a PhD in fluid dynamics, I became a lecturer and ultimately
