His quest takes him to the four corners of the world, where four wise men (all of whom turn out to be women) reveal to him the secrets to dating. In Indianapolis, Halfaya teaches Luke differential geometry, from which he learns that gravitation is nothing more than the warpage of space by matter, and that he must warp the space around him more strongly if he wishes women to be attracted to him. In Cambridge, Cora teaches Luke number theory, from which he learns that 1+1=0 (mod 2), but that 1+1+1=1.
In Palo Alto, he learns combinatorial optimization from Theresa, concentrating on the crucial application of the greedy algorithm to optimal cookie selection. Finally in Yokohama, Mae teaches Luke about algebra so abstract that the less you know the better you understand it.
When Luke returns home he finds that he has learned everything there
is to know about mathematics except how to solve partial differential equations.
Since his life is in fact better than it was before, he concludes that
he didn't need to learn how to solve them after all.