Just for a little context, the minimum age being ((your age / 2)+7) is meant to be “this is the minimum age of someone you can date without it being creepy” (i believe it originated from the TV show how i met your mother)
If you were born in 1994 you are either 30 or 31. Let’s call it 30 for easy math.
30/2 = 15
15+7=22
So anyone who is 22 or older fits the minimum age concept, which is anyone born in approx 2002/2003 or earlier. If you decided to include that, the extra 4-5 years does increase the dating pool quite a bit.
I’m not telling you who to date, just giving a little context to the math since that’s what was brought up in the original comment.
Edit: Lots of folks chiming in with some really good insight about the history of the math. Thank you all for that!
Although the historical accounts seem to be math for the “ideal age” in a (probably female) partner and not “minimum age before it’s creepy” as it was presented in HIMYM, it’s really interesting to see how that equation has been used for over 100 years!
(i believe it originated from the TV show how i met your mother)
Although the provenance of the rule is unclear, it is sometimes said to have originated in France.[81] The rule appears in John Fox Jr.'s 1903 novel The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come,[84] in American newspapers in 1931 attributed to Maurice Chevalier,[85] and in The Autobiography of Malcolm X, attributed to Elijah Muhammad.[86]
In many early sources, the rule was primarily presented as a formula to calculate the ideal age of a female partner at the beginning of a heterosexual relationship. Frederick Locker-Lampson’s Patchwork from 1879 states the opinion “A wife should be half the age of her husband with seven years added.”[87] Max O’Rell’s Her Royal Highness Woman from 1901 gives the rule in the format “A man should marry a woman half his age, plus seven.”[88]
Totally fair, lots of folks have chimed in about it. Really interesting to see it’s over 100 years old (although more focused on ideal partner, not avoiding being creepy)
Just for a little context, the minimum age being ((your age / 2)+7) is meant to be “this is the minimum age of someone you can date without it being creepy” (i believe it originated from the TV show how i met your mother)
If you were born in 1994 you are either 30 or 31. Let’s call it 30 for easy math.
30/2 = 15 15+7=22
So anyone who is 22 or older fits the minimum age concept, which is anyone born in approx 2002/2003 or earlier. If you decided to include that, the extra 4-5 years does increase the dating pool quite a bit.
I’m not telling you who to date, just giving a little context to the math since that’s what was brought up in the original comment.
Edit: Lots of folks chiming in with some really good insight about the history of the math. Thank you all for that!
Although the historical accounts seem to be math for the “ideal age” in a (probably female) partner and not “minimum age before it’s creepy” as it was presented in HIMYM, it’s really interesting to see how that equation has been used for over 100 years!
Although the provenance of the rule is unclear, it is sometimes said to have originated in France.[81] The rule appears in John Fox Jr.'s 1903 novel The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come,[84] in American newspapers in 1931 attributed to Maurice Chevalier,[85] and in The Autobiography of Malcolm X, attributed to Elijah Muhammad.[86]
In many early sources, the rule was primarily presented as a formula to calculate the ideal age of a female partner at the beginning of a heterosexual relationship. Frederick Locker-Lampson’s Patchwork from 1879 states the opinion “A wife should be half the age of her husband with seven years added.”[87] Max O’Rell’s Her Royal Highness Woman from 1901 gives the rule in the format “A man should marry a woman half his age, plus seven.”[88]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_disparity_in_sexual_relationships
See I didn’t know that was the origin. I like it better as an outside boundary.
That’s really interesting, thanks for sharing!
It had to be a thing before how I met your mother, I remember it being a thing during school in the 80-90’s
Totally fair, lots of folks have chimed in about it. Really interesting to see it’s over 100 years old (although more focused on ideal partner, not avoiding being creepy)
Invert this rule to get the maximum age you can date (defined as the person whose minimum age is your current age):
min age = (your age / 2) + 7 max age = (your age * 2) - 14
If you’re 30, then you can reasonably date people between 22 and 46. So the other guy can add even more years before 1990.
Also, for the maximum age they are the younger one. So assuming age is 30, substract 7 and multiply the outcome by 2, maximum date age is 46…