Brits have had 'indirect sex' with 2.8 million people

[snopes]

The average British man or woman has slept with 2.8 million people -- albeit indirectly, according to figures released to promote awareness of sexual health.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090923...20090923111531

[Jay Tea]

Heh - the 'calculator' at the website doesn't require much information, just how many partners you've had in your life, and the age of each of them when you last slept with them. Don Giovanni I ain't, but I couldn't even hazard a guess regarding some of my previous encounters

[Dreams of Thinking Machines]

"When we sleep with someone, we are, in effect, not only sleeping with them, but also their previous partners and their partners' previous partners, and so on,"

So, if members of a younger generation have sex with members of an older generation, and they've had sex with members of an even older generation, and so on...does this mean that the young generation has had indirect sex with people thousands of years old?

[FullMetal]

My question is this..
how many of those 2.8 million people, could be you?

your partners, ex parter's ex partner, could have slept with you as well.. and that is included in that number...

so in a sense, it's saying, you're indirectly sleeping with yourself!

[Tarquin Farquart]

Originally Posted by FullMetal

so in a sense, it's saying, you're indirectly sleeping with yourself!

Well that's not exactly unusual.

[Beachlife!]

Originally Posted by Jay Tea

Heh - the 'calculator' at the website doesn't require much information, just how many partners you've had in your life, and the age of each of them when you last slept with them. Don Giovanni I ain't, but I couldn't even hazard a guess regarding some of my previous encounters

You have no idea how old they were?

*ETA: I'm not sure how they are calculating those numbers, but there is some serious flawed math and assumptions involved.

[Richard W]

I'm being a bit thick here, after several beers and some wine, but does anybody see how they've calculated that 2.8 million figure?

The obvious sum (for the number of partners they give, about 7.6 each, and calculating over 6 "generations") would surely be 7.6^6 = 193,000-ish? Am I just being stupid?

[Jay Tea]

Originally Posted by Beachlife!

You have no idea how old they were?

A rough guess in some instances, others I knew their exact birthday, but yeah, i've slept with people with their age being surplus to requirements, or whose age i've utterly forgotten. I'm 34 not 20

[GalateaDancer]

According to the calculator, my number is 2,123,145.

I'm quite a hussy for someone with three sexual partners over the past 19 years - with the last 18 of them being in a monogomous relationship.

[llewtrah]

At first I thought I was an underachiever, but a couple of my relationships were with much older men so I might have indirectly slept with my grandparents.