The vast majority of the latter group is not promiscuous, however. In fact, many of its members have had only one or a few partners. The size of the group derives from our interconnectedness. Whatever the truth of these and other theoretical conjectures and factual inquiries, the only mathematical generalization about sex that has ever seemed totally credible is the one asserting that the average adult in the U.S. has one testicle and one breast. A professor of mathematics at Temple University, John Allen Paulos is the author, most recently, of Once Upon a Number .
Solutions Here are the answers to the two questions.
My suspicion is that, despite the researchers' best efforts, the results of the MacArthur Foundation study on midlife satisfaction with life are skewed. The randomly selected respondents were questioned by strangers over the telephone and then were mailed a detailed follow-up questionnaire. Thus 80 or so of the approximately 500 people whose coins landed tails were truly answering the question in the affirmative. Since there's no difference between those whose coins landed tails and those whose coins landed heads, this percentage can be taken to hold for the whole group of 1,000 as well. The only mathematical generalization about sex that has ever seemed totally credible is the one asserting that the average adult in the U.S. has one testicle and one breast.