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     Finding a partner has always been a complicated process. It is a ritual that has evolved over the centuries, from a man taking food to a prospective partner in the Stone Age to young couples having tea together in Victorian times to dancing in a club with deafening music in the 21st century. 

     But now busy men and women who don’t have the time for a slow, gentle courtship have a quicker way to find a partner: speed dating, where single people have exactly three minutes to decide if the person they are talking to could be Mr. or Ms. Right. The idea involves bringing together people for an evening of frenzied, “quick-fire” dating. This is how it works. 

     Small tables are placed in a line and the women sit down at the one assigned to them. They stay at their tables all evening. The men take turns sitting next to each woman and having a very quick conversation. After three minutes a bell rings and, even if you are in mid-sentence, it is time for the man to move to the next table. If you like the person you have just spoken to, you pit a check in the “yes” box on a scorecard. If the other person chooses you too, this is called a “match,” and the organizers will send you the other person’s e-mail address a couple of days later,and they will be sent yours, too. 

     “Three minutes is enough time to talk to someone,” says Adele Testani, who runs a speed dating company,“because you can get an idea of what a person is like in that time, and you can eliminate them if you see right away that they’re not your type.”