Mathematics - Making an Even Merrier Christmas!

Last night I was wrapping a Christmas present, and because I’m so frugal (that’s fancy talk for cheap), I broke out the ruler and measuring tape to ensure that I minimized wrapping paper waste. It never fails that after wrapping a large item there are a lot of little pieces left over. These scraps never quite fit any other presents so you throw them away and lose money in the process. However, after fighting with the roll of paper, a broken tape measure, and tape that stuck to everything except what I wanted it to, I was throughly annoyed. I thought to myself “There has got to be a better way!” and so I put the present back under the bed, and some how found the rum and a little apple cider.

Then, this morning as I’m checking my RSS feeds, I ran across Jennifer Chu’s latest Wrap Not, Waste Not post on TechnologyReview.com. Apparently there is a postgraduate student from the University of Leicester who developed a mathematical formula for perfectly wrapping a gift, without wasting time and paper!I can have my pi and eat it too! It’s a simple yet brilliant formula that optimizes wrapping paper usage conditioned on surface area of the present: Area = 2(ab+ac+bc+c²). Using this formula, I can combine things that make me happiest during the rest of the year (math and frugality) with Christmas! I can have my pi and eat it too! Now RA Salvatore’s latest telling of Drizzt’s battles can be perfectly wrapped! Oh the joy of it all! Of course, the formula only applies to cubic items, so the Darth Vader helmet coffee mug I picked up from Target will just have to go in a stocking.