Editing 314: Dating Pools

{{comic
| number    = 314
| date      = September 10, 2007
| title     = Dating Pools
| image     = dating pools.png
| titletext = The full analysis is of course much more complicated, but I can't stay to talk about it because I have a date.
}}

==Explanation==
[[File:half-plus-seven.png|right|Half Plus Seven Rule]]
Megan is upset because she is apparently older than 26, and among people who marry, {{w|median|half}} do so below 26. The intuitive conclusion is that the number of potential partners is decreasing as time goes on.

The [http://onehalfplusseven.com Half Plus Seven Rule] is an unwritten rule that asserts that it is creepy to date anyone who is younger than half your age plus 7 years. For example, a 50-year-old dating someone who is younger than 32 (50/2 + 7 = 32) would be considered creepy. As the graph shows, there is a lower limit and an upper limit.

*The lower limit defines the minimum age of your partner in order that ''you'' are not considered creepy.
*The upper limit defines the maximum age of your partner in order that ''they'' are not considered creepy.

The lower limit can be defined as ''f(x)'' = ''x''/2 + 7 in which ''x'' is your age and ''f(x)'' is the minimum age of your partner. The upper limit can be defined as f^-1(x) = 2(''x'' &minus; 7) in which ''x'' is your age and ''f^-1(x)'' is the maximum age of your partner.

As age increases, the age range of potential non-creepy partners widens. At 26, the range of non-creepy partners is 18 years (20- to 38-year-olds). At 50, it is 54 years (32 to 86 years old).

At age 14, you can only date people your own age. The same also works with infinity, but even {{w|Methuselah}} died once.

While the application of this rule actually reduces the number of potential matches further, [[Cueball]] presents it in a positive way by showing that there are whole swathes of people who she couldn't marry in the first place without being in a creepy relationship. But, as her age increases, the range of non-creepy partners also increases. Combined with {{w|United States Census Bureau|Census Bureau}} data for how many people exist within any such range, Cueball shows that her eligible dating pool is in fact still increasing.

Megan notes that graph-making nerds like Cueball may have a hard time finding dates, but this is refuted by the title text.

{{clear}}

==Transcript==
:[Megan is sitting on the ground with her elbows on her knees and her hands on her chin.]
:Megan: This sucks. The median first marriage age is 26. The pool of singles is shrinking. I'm running out of time.
:Cueball: Actually, not quite.

:Cueball: Yes, older singles are rarer. But as you get older, the dateable age range gets wider. An 18-year-old's range is 16–22, whereas a 30-year-old's might be more like 22–46.
:Text on chart: Standard creepiness rule: Don't date under (Age/2 + 7)

:Cueball: I did some analysis of this with the Census Bureau numbers just last weekend. Your dating pool actually <u>grows</u> until middle age. So don't fret so much!
:[The first chart is labeled "Singles" and is a decreasing graph. The second graph is labeled Dating Pool, and is a bell curve.]

:Megan: Did your analysis say anything about the dating prospects of people who spend weekends at home making graphs?
:Cueball: Come on. Somewhere at the edge of the bell curve is the girl for me.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Line graphs]]
[[Category:Romance]]
[[Category:Statistics]]
[[Category:Math]]