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 152cm (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.
Their calculations look like this:
- Length of tinsel in cm: (13 x pi) divided by 8, then multiply by tree hight in cm
- Number of baubles: (17 x pi) then multiply by tree hight in cm
- Length of lights in cm: pi multiplied by tree hight in cm
- Height of star in cm: tree height in cm divided by 10
Sophie Chong, 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."
Christmas tree facts
- The world's tallest Christmas tree would, at 2,600ft tall, need more than 16,000 baubles, over 4,000 meters of tinsel, almost 2,500 meters of lights, and an 80 meter tall star.
- The Trafalgar Square tree is usually about 25 meters tall, meaning it needs 515 baubles, over 100 meters of tinsel, 78 meters of lights and a 2.5 meter tall star.