BACKGROUND: The Drake Equation (named after the astronomer) proposes that the number of intelligent civilizations in our galaxy is equal to the number of stars times the fraction of those which have planets, times the fraction of those planets which are habitable, times the fraction of those that actually
have life, etc., etc, and finally, times the fraction of those that have intelligent life.
A similar formula can be proposed for online dating. I call this the Dork Equation :)
Number of girls on an online dating site with whom a relationship might be possible
=
Total number of girls on the dating site
x
fraction that fit your search parameters
x
fraction of those whose profiles/pictures you like
x
fraction of the above that you actually write to
x
fraction of the above who write back
x
fraction of the above who write back more than one sentence/show interest in you
x
fraction of the above who can communicate halfway intelligently
x
fraction of the above who don't disappear after a few messages
x
fraction of the above who you talk to on the telephone
x
fraction of the above who agree to a first date
x
fraction of the above whom you want to keep dating
x
fraction of the above who agree to a subsequent date
x
fraction of the above who you have physical chemistry with
This can be easily summarized as:
N = NG x fs x fp x fw x fwb x fws x fwi x fnd x ft x ffd x fkd x fsd x fpc
The fun part is that online dating services can help you compute this. Some values will require user input, like the physical chemistry question. But many of the others can be populated or estimated by the dating service/website itself.