Can Physics Optimize Your Custody Weekends?

 Posted on March 22, 2014 in Family Law

Physicist Andres Gomberoff believes that science can help resolve child custody arrangement questions. Gomberoff, who has two ex-wives and a current girlfriend, was searching for a way to optimize time with children while still allowing for alone time.

Bigger and blended families may be stuck juggling a variety of schedules that don’t make the most sense for any of the parents or the children. To find the best visit schedule, Gomberoff applied the same process that is used to minimize magnetic material in a spin-glass system.

Gomberoff recruited friends in an effort to use mathematics and physics to see whether there was an optimal approach to generating visitation schedules. They used examples from a network of friends who had children and exes. While he and his team discovered that there was no way to satisfy every parent, applying physics did help to reduce the number of unhappy couples. In their research, the team found an algorithm that allows every parent all of their own children on the same weekends.

The process of using science to solve social problems is gaining traction around the country. While the model may be oversimplified in this case (since only heterosexual couples were used and parents who refused to cooperate or had challenging weekend work schedules were excluded), it does point to a future with possibly better custody arrangement for these complex families.