Who said higher math wouldn’t help you in real life?

Beer Goggle Math

Oh man, I am so putting this on a T-shirt.

This equation is the result of research at Manchester University into the “beer goggles” effect on perception of attractiveness. Here’s the key to formula:

  • An = number of units of alcohol consumed
  • S = smokiness of the room (graded from 0-10, where 0 clear air; 10 extremely smoky)
  • L = luminance of ‘person of interest’ (candelas per square metre; typically 1 pitch black; 150 as seen in normal room lighting)
  • Vo = Snellen visual acuity (6/6 normal; 6/12 just meets driving standard)
  • d = distance from ‘person of interest’ (metres; 0.5 to 3 metres)

For more information you can go read the article at the BBC–or, the extra-classy reportage at The Sun.

Here’s the salient bit:

A formula rating of less than one means no effect. Between one and 50 the person you would normally find unattractive appears less “visually offensive”.

Non-appealing people become suddenly attractive between 51 and 100. At more than 100, someone not considered attractive looks like a super model.

The funniest thing in the article though is this:

The research was commissioned by eyecare firm Bausch & Lomb PureVision.

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada
This work by Chris McLaren is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada.