Maths Students have the Solution for Decorating the Perfect Christmas Tree

18th December 2015

If you've gone overboard while decorating the Christmas tree this year and it's more gaudy than great then maths students from the University of Sheffield may have the answer.

Members of Sheffield University Maths Society (SUMS) have created a festive formula to ensure just the right ratio of lights, tinsel and baubles are used to give your Christmas tree the perfect look. Using their 'treegonometry' calculations they say a 152 cm (5ft) Christmas tree would need 31 baubles, around 776 cms of tinsel and 478 cms of lights with a 15cm star or angel to top it off. So whether it's a Norwegian Spruce or an artificial tree, use the formula to make sure you have the right number of decorations and your home is a winter wonderland this Christmas. The formula is as follows: Number of baubles = √17÷20 x (tree height in cms) The length of tinsel (cms) = 13 x Ï€ ÷ 8 x (tree height in cms) The length of lights (cms) =  Ï€ x (tree height in cms) The height of the star/fairy (cms) =  height of tree (in cms) ÷ 10 George Amos, president of SUMS said: "Being interested in maths can be a struggle for a lot of people, but this is a brilliant way of showing an applicable side of maths. -This equation - which was created by two former students and SUMS members a few years ago - is a nice and easy equation to get people involved in maths, as well as a bit of good, festive fun."