Maths Careers: The maths of online dating
This collection contains a range of teaching materials to support the Maths Careers article 'The maths of online dating' by Hazel Lewis.
The resource collection includes a link to the full article, explores what makes people attractive and classroom resources for teaching algorithms, modeling and correlation as well as ideas for how to incorporate these topics in real-life contexts.
The maths of online dating
"You might not think that finding your true love and mathematics have much in common, however increasingly you would be wrong. Just like the fact that more people are shopping online every year, more people are also dating online. The online dating industry is worth an estimated £300 million each year in the UK and 25% of all new relationships are thought to start from online dating."
Drop Dead Gorgeous
This Study Plus unit from the National Strategies engages students in discussion about attractiveness, using photographs of the faces of famous people. The aim of this unit is for students to explore the golden ratio as a determinant of attractiveness. In particular the link to facial beauty is explored using the ideas of ratio and correlation.
Algorithms
This activity introduces the concept of algorithms.
The video helps to explain that different algorithms produce the same results, but some methods are more efficient than others. Students can use tangram shapes and graph paper to explore the importance of making each instruction clear and unambiguous. Students then explore the number of ways it is possible to fold paper into a rectangle, noting how some methods can take more or fewer folds than others.
Heptathlon
Students have the chance to use an algorithm by applying the scoring system used for the Olympic heptathlon event.
Students are provided with athlete's individual results from the seven events that make up the heptathlon. They then apply relevant formulae to the data and produce tables, or spreadsheets, which show individual scores for each athlete.
A detailed lesson plan supports the implementation of this activity, which is an example of functional mathematics, and has been designed to prompt class discussion and mathematical thinking.
Correlation
This interactive Excel file and pupil worksheet collection explores whether two things are related and the strength of the correlation. For a series of different situations scatter plots and lines of best fit can be drawn.
Best Song Ever
How easy it is to find a match? And how strong is the connection?
In this activity students calculate Spearman's Rank Correlation Coefficient after listening to the first few seconds of ten famous songs, placing them in order and comparing their ranking with an official ranking. DO students agree with each other?
Hannah Fry: The mathematics of love TED Talk
"Finding the right mate is no cakewalk — but is it even mathematically likely? In a charming talk, mathematician Hannah Fry shows patterns in how we look for love, and gives her top three tips (verified by math!) for finding that special someone."
Maths career profiles
This booklet has been provided by More Maths Grads and it is designed to highlight the versatility of mathematics and to show that a degree in the mathematical sciences can take students anywhere; it can open doors, from developing software technologies to being a professional rugby league player. Working on exciting and innovative projects, mathematicians are highly valued and an essential element of any successful team.
