Beauty is in the Eye of the Beer-Holder

The above formula was recently developed by researchers at Manchester University to calculate strength of what is commonly known as the "beer goggles" effect (cleverly depicted by beta in the equation). In the formula, An is the number of drinks consumed, S is the smokiness of the room on a scale of 1 to 10, L is the luminance of the 'person of interest' measured in candelas per square meter, Vo is the Snellen visual acuity, and d is the distance from the 'person of interest' in meters.

The formula can work out a final score, ranging from less than one (where there is no beer goggle effect) to more than 100. According to the researchers, a score between 1 and 50 would mean a person you would normally find unattractive appears less "visually offensive". Non-appealing people become suddenly attractive between 51 and 100. And at more than 100, someone not considered attractive looks like a super model.

So apparently it's not just the beer that makes the beauty. There are other factors involved. This research was commissioned, not just funded, but commissioned by Bausch & Lomb PureVision. Why they would care is beyond me. Though it would be an interesting and amusing little side project, I'd hate to be the scientist who has to put my name to such trivial research. But now that the beer goggles phenomenon is all worked out, the researchers can finally get on to more useful work, like why some people see half full glasses while other see them as half empty. And why do some people get to see the world as if through rose colored glasses while the rest of us get stuck with the plain old ordinary-colored world. Those are the questions that really need answering!