Date 12 times to find the perfect mate!

Want to find your one and only? Well, then the best chances of finding the perfect partner is to date at least 12 people before even thinking of marriage.

That’s the calculation of a leading mathematician.

According to Clio Cresswell, singles can increase their chances of finding true love by rejecting at least 12 potential partners before settling down.

Cresswell’s theory, which is based on statistical assessment, claims the chances of divorce is generally very high unless singles date at least a dozen time before they get hitched.

”In Australia, the divorce rate is about 35 per cent for first marriages,” the Sydney Morning Herald quoted her as saying.

She explained: ”Now, if you were buying a DVD player and I told you it had a 35 per cent chance of breaking down, you might think twice about making that purchase.

“But we still insist on going into marriage with this belief that our partner is the one for us and we have a 100 per cent chance of success.

”According to my principle, you have to reject at least 12 people to increase your chance of finding your long-term partner. If you do that, you raise the chance of making it work to 75 per cent.”

The senior lecturer in the School of Mathematics and Statistics, in the University of Sydney, has explained her theory in her new book Sex and Mathematics, apart from introducing it into her tertiary classes.

However, she has a grievance that mathematics is not liked by a lot of people.

She said: ”I think it’s so sad that the wider community does not embrace mathematics as much as it could. Mathematics can be fun.”