Here’s how maths can help you find the love of your life this Valentine’s Day

Struggling to find a date for this evening? Or maybe you’re looking for somebody to spend the rest of your life with? Mathematician Kit Yates explains how, on the most romantic day of the year, you can put your faith in science

There are likely to be multiple people out there who will be a good match for us, and with whom we can be happy (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Today is Valentine’s Day. A day for star-crossed lovers to reaffirm their adoration, and for secret admirers to dare to gift the objects of their desires a token of their affection.

I will admit that I don’t buy in to Valentine’s Day. My jaded older self would tell you that it’s an overly commercialised made-up “celebration”, invented by greeting card companies to flog us mass-produced tat for extortionate prices.

But I was not always this cynical. One year I bought 30 bunches of daffodils and strung them up on lampposts and notice boards that marked my girlfriend’s route home. Every surface in the flat was covered with jars and cups full of the chirpy yellow flowers. Incidentally, this was also the year I discovered I had hay fever! It is surprisingly hard to give away 30 bunches of daffodils the day after Valentine’s.