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## Should You Try to Escape the Friend Zone?

Last week I tried to provide a bit of dating advice through an exploration of the half your age plus seven rule. This week, I'd like to continue on this theme by analyzing what you should do if you find yourself trapped in the friend zone.

For those of you not hip to the lingo, the friend zone is a sort of platonic purgatory people find themselves in when they have unrequited feelings for a close friend. It is a commonly held belief that one winds up in the friend zone by waiting too long to make a move, and though the friend zone is typically thought of as a place where men wind up, women can easily find themselves there too. Here's a link to Joey explaining the concept to Ross on an episode of Friends (sorry, embedding for the video has been disabled). For a satirical look at the zone, you may want to read this article from The Onion.

Suppose you find yourself trapped in the friend zone, and want to make a break for it by confessing your true feelings to your heart's desire....

## A Rule for Summer Lovin'

With summer now in full swing (in the northern hemisphere, at least), romance is undoubtedly in the air.  The longer days are perfect for evening walks on the beach, dinner by sunset, or the always romantic late-afternoon pie eating contest.  And while it is easy to let your better judgment swim away through the humid air, it is sometimes important to consider how your relationship may be viewed by your peers.

One of the most well-known rules of thumb is the half-your-age plus seven rule.  This rule tries to quantify the intuitive idea that if you are dating someone younger than you, they should not be TOO much younger than you.  Specifically, the rule says:

1. You should not date anyone before the age of 14.
2. Once you are 14, you should not date anyone whose age is less than half of your age, plus seven years.

Originally, this rule was conceived of as a means to compute a wife's ideal age compared to her husband (namely, half his age plus seven).  It has since evolved, however, to...

## CNN Light Years Guest Post: How Professors' Dads Made Math Fun

Hi all,

This weekend's Father's Day celebrations have inspired my monthly article over at the CNN Light Years blog.  Here's a sample:

There are many misconceptions about mathematicians in popular culture. For example, windows and mirrors do not make for the best writing surfaces, despite what you might assume from "A Beautiful Mind" or "Good Will Hunting." Mathematicians are also frequently portrayed as painfully socially awkward. And while this is sometimes the case, the true range of personality types is much more varied. Even among the more socially awkward, it is not uncommon for mathematicians to fall in love, marry and start a family. What must it be like to grow up in a household with a mathematician? In the spirit of Father's Day, I spoke with two mathematicians whose fathers were also mathematicians about what it's like being raised in a mathematical household

## Were the San Francisco Giants #1?

Last month, I posted a review of a new book titled "Who's #1?" on the mathematics of ranking and rating - if you're interested, you can purchase a copy via the Amazon sidebar on the right.  Today I'd like to study the San Francisco Giants with one of the techniques used in this book: the offense-defense rating method.

Why the Giants?  It's really just a personal preference.  For the non-Giants fan, though, it's worth pointing out that the Giants won the World Series in 2010, but failed to even make the playoffs in 2011.  Let's try to investigate why this is the case.  Baseball fans may have their own explanations for this observation, but for a moment let's focus on the math.

As the name suggests, the offense-defense rating method rates a team's offensive and defensive capabilities.  Of course, these two things are highly interdependent - if a baseball team scores 10 runs in a game, for example, is it because they have a couple of excellent hitters, or is it because the team they...

## Math in Books: Math Puzzles

Presh Talwalkar, fellow blogger and founder of the game theory/personal finance website Mind Your Decisions, has recently released an e-book composed of 70 math puzzles previously featured on his blog.  He was kind enough to send a review copy my way, so if you enjoy a good math puzzle, read on!

The book is organized into three sections, divided by general subject.  There are twenty five counting/geometry puzzles, twenty five probability puzzles, and twenty strategy/game theory puzzles.  Some of the puzzles are inspired by discussions Presh has had with his readers over the years, though many are not unique to this book and some are moderately well known.  In fact, the intersection of the puzzles in the book with things I have talked about here is nonempty - some examples of overlap can be found here and here.

William Poundstone's book on the history of Microsoft and the puzzle-based job interview, How Would You Move Mt. Fuji?, is probably the most commonly cited text in Presh's collection...

## CNN Light Years Guest Post: Did 'Avengers' really own box office records?

Over at CNN this month, I talk about the phenomenal success of Marvel's The Avengers in its stampede over old box office records.  But how much stock should we put in these records?  Is this blockbuster really the top dog in the record books?  Here's a sneak preview of the article:

When the Avengers assemble, the world opens its collective wallet.  In just under three weeks since its international opening, "Marvel's The Avengers" has earned more than $1 billion worldwide. In America, it blew through the$200 million mark over opening weekend alone, and now holds the title of best three-day opening in film history.  Or does it? While dollar signs fuel the engine of Hollywood movie production, they are not necessarily the most objective measure of a film's success.  Most importantly, the dollar is not a static unit of measurement like the meter; as a result of inflation, a dollar in 2008 has more purchasing power than a dollar in 2012.  If we search for a better way to measure film's...

## Math in Books: Who's #1?

In an earlier post, I closed by hinting at the mathematics of ranking.  In this modern era, the topic is particularly relevant: the ranking algorithms are hard at work whenever you type something into a search engine, rate a movie on Netflix, or look at a product on Amazon.  It's also a popular area of study among sports enthusiasts, for whom accurate rankings of the relative strengths of teams can make all the difference in a fantasy league or a betting pool.

Because of all of these accessible applications, it should come as no surprise that the mathematics of ranking is the subject of a new book, titled Who's #1? The Science of Rating and Ranking.  Written by applied mathematicians Amy N. Langville and Carl D. Meyer, the book tackles a variety of methods used to extract ratings or rankings given some collection of input data.

This book is chock full of information.  The first part of the book discusses several different algorithms used to construct rankings.  There are plenty of...

## Help Make it Rain for Math52!

Hi everyone,

If you follow me on Twitter, you may have noticed some activity over the past week in regards to a new Kickstarter project, Math52.  From the creators of Mathalicious, this campaign has set the ambitious goal of raising $164,000 to help transform the way mathematics is taught in our schools. Every week for a year, they will release a video aimed at exploring mathematics through everyday questions - the types of questions that will immediately connect with students, and help motivate them to understand the math required to provide a reasonable answer. But don't believe me, check out this video! The team has raised over$12,000 in a week.  This is amazing, but it's not quite on track for them to reach their goal.  So if you give a hoot, please consider donating to this most worthy of causes.  Even better, if you have some wealthy friends, get them to donate too (friends of Bill Gates, I am speaking to you!).

## Run for the Ranking

This Saturday, folks from all over the country will be tuning in to the 138th Kentucky Derby.  In fact, this year the Kentucky Derby falls on the same day as Cinco de Mayo; undoubtedly the result of this intersection will be a plethora of parties celebrating the melting pot that is America (tacos and mint juleps make for a wonderful combination, I'm sure).

Whenever racing comes up, mathematics can't be far behind.  Gambling is always a popular topic: how are the odds for the different racers determined, for example?  But this is a question I will save for another time.  Today, inspired by horse racing in particular, I'd like to discuss the following classic logic puzzle.

Suppose you have 25 horses and a 5 lane race track.  You have no way to record the finishing times of the horses, but you can race up to 5 horses on the track at once and see how quickly the horses finish relative to one another.  What's the minimum number of races needed to find the three fastest horses?