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thirdwizard June 16 2006, 17:51:27 UTC
For the life of me I can't figure out the algorithm behind that and its driving me crazy.

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burntrice June 16 2006, 21:41:33 UTC
i feel kinda awful for wondering, but how did they get those numbers?? i got lost after 2 partners...= /

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venussonata June 16 2006, 22:03:46 UTC
The chart is assuming everyone has the same number of partners you do. So if you have been with 2 people, and they have each been with two people...

But then again, you're right, it doesn't really add up completely. Hmm.

Oh well, I've never been a math fan. The point is, everyone should go get tested.

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burntrice June 16 2006, 22:49:46 UTC
=) i really like the way you wrote that, because i can totally imagine you saying that. with the pauses and everytthing.

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thirdwizard June 17 2006, 07:57:08 UTC
Okay, say Robert has sex with Mary and Sue. Now, he's had sex with two people. So, that's one person for both Mary and Sue. Now, everyone is supposed to have two partners (because we're doing the 2 column), so Mary has also had sex with Jimmy and Sue has also had sex with George. Tha'ts 4, not 3, unless we make a huge assumption that Mary and Sue have actually had sex with the same guy, in which case 3 is the correct number instead of 4.

So it appears that the table is making the assumption that everyone is having sex with the same people. Now, I've seen this occur, and was properly horrified by it I might add, but I don't know if that's an accurate representation of most situations.

I have to say the algorithms are quite unwieldy if you don't do that. Hmmm, I'll work on it later when it isn't 4am and I can actually think or something.

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thirdwizard June 17 2006, 07:59:22 UTC
By the way, this is assuming we don't go two degrees of separation, by which I mean that we don't count the partners of someone's partners. If you start doing that it really gets unwieldy. Of course, you can go back and say that half of the people haven't had their second partner yet, because everyting isn't occurring simultaneously, but... um... I should go to sleep now.

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