It will help you minimize the amount of tape and paper you need.
For some, Christmas is a time for family, faith and good food. For others, the commercial aspects of the holiday season have taken over; gift buying and wrapping are increasingly important parts of the celebration.
If you are as mathematically minded as Sara Santos, founder of Maths Busking, you might have wondered whether there is a perfect way to wrap a gift: one that minimizes the amount of wrapping paper and tape that you need and even makes it possible to line up patterns on wrapping paper if your gift is square. Wonder no longer! Here’s how to do it:
Start by measuring your gift: you will need the height as well as the longest diagonal. Then, grab your scissors and cut a square piece of paper, the sides of which equal the diagonal of the box plus one and a half times its height. Next, place the gift diagonally in the middle. Lastly, bring all of the corners together. Here you will have to play around with the paper a little and tuck in the edges when folding the last two corners.
Wrapping gifts this way will require less tape than the normal method since all of the pieces come together in one point. Furthermore, there is very little paper overlap so you can save on that precious commodity.
See it in action here:
