In hmolscience, Clio Cresswell (c.1972-) (CR:2) is an English-born (Ѻ) Australian mathematician noted for her 2003 work on the human mathematics of marriages.
Overview
In 2003, Cresswell published Mathematics and Sex , which seemingly attempted to ferret an outline of what she referred to as the mathematics of love, along with a subject she calls “sexual mathematics”; the abstract is as follows: [1]
“Mathematics and sex may make odd bedfellows, but this fun, flirty look at the relationship between the two subjects shows that they are closely related. Revealing the ways in which math can help unlock the secrets of love, lust, and life's search for the ideal partner, this intriguing text covers topics such as dating services, dating as game theory, the mathematical logic of affairs, and the numbers behind orgasms. Math's answers to love's burning questions: How much should one compromise in a relationship? Exactly what is it that is attractive in a lover? How many partners should one have before settling down? and What makes the infamous biological clock tick? are also revealed.”
In 2009, Cresswell was being cited for having published a theory of the mathematics of love and or sex, claiming that singles can increase their chances of finding true love by rejecting at least 12 potential partners before settling down. [2]
In 2014, Cresswell, in her “Mathematics and Sex” Tedx Sydney talk, stated that the following two equations model a successful marriage: [3]
where W stands for wife, H for husband, about which she says the following:
“These are very sophisticated equations that model a successful marriage. They’re ground breaking equations, because it was the first time that truly sophisticated mathematics was used in the field of romance.”
Here, we not only see intellectual ineptitude, in respect to communication, e.g. “sophisticated” is used twice in the same sentence (as though there were unsophisticated equations that modeled successful marriages), but also an attempt at over-zealousness, specifically she fails to recognize an historical precedence to her subject matter, one of the earliest examples being William Rankine's 1845 love equation, shown below, from his "The Mathematician in Love":
which is far more "sophisticated" than Cresswell's dabblings. She also fails to mention modern pioneers, e.g. Steven Strogatz (1998), John Gottman (1994), or Helen Fisher (1994).
Education
In 1999, Cresswell completed her PhD in mathematics with a dissertation on “The discrete Painlevé equations: hierarchies, Bäcklund transformations and singularity confinement”, at the University of South Wales.
References
1. Cresswell, Clio. (2003). Mathematics and Sex. Allen & Unwin.
2. Browne, Rachel. (2009). “The Mathematical Formula for Love”, Stuff.co.nz, Aug 25.
3. Cresswell, Clio. (2014). “Mathematics and Sex” (Ѻ), Tedx Sydney, Jun 10.
External links
● Clio Cresswell (faculty) – University of Sydney.
● Cresswell, Clio – WorldCat Identities.
