She's Done The Sums On Santa, And The Math Checks Out
Hannah Fry is co-author of The Indisputable Existence Of Santa Claus, an application of mathematics to holiday quandaries like wrapping round presents, turkey roasting and one man's annual journey.
by Ray Suarez
Dec 24, 2017
2 minutes
It's Christmas Eve, and Santa is making the rounds.
Maybe some killjoy has been pointing out to you just how hard it would be for the jolly fellow to visit a few hundred million kids in one night. Well, guess what? Math actually magnifies the old man's magic.
Hannah Fry has done the sums, and with Thomas Oléron Evans, has co-authored a new book Think of it as a way to make your Christmas a little bit more serene through math, whether you're determining how much garland you need for the tree, how to wrap presents with a minimum of wasted paper or how best to roast a holiday meal. It's a handy guide to jolly geometry and candy cane calculus.
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