- Nottingham Trent University’s Dr James Hind says the perfect snowman should be 1.62m high, made of three balls of snow, always wear a hat, scarf and gloves and have three buttons on his chest

In the wake of the snow that descended across the UK over the weekend and the vague hints of a hard winter to come both children and adults across the country may be expecting to try their hands at building a snowman in the coming winter months– but constructing a show-stopping snowman is snow mean feat.

Indeed, while 92% of Britons admit they love making snowmen, almost the same number (87%) don’t feel confident in their snowmanufacturing. To use a carrot or an orange for the nose? Two tiers or three?  Arms? A coal smile? Buttons? The decisions go on.

To give households a helping hand, and highlight the flood risk-reducing benefits of well-constructed snowmen, insurer MORE TH>N has commissioned mathematician Dr James Hind, from Nottingham Trent University, to create the formula for the perfect snowman: guaranteed to ensure 2017’s snowmen stand out in even the whitest of weathers.

Dr Hind’s formula for the perfect snowman, which incidentally also looks like a snowman, takes in several variables when assessing snowman supremacy, including height, number and diameters of snowball tiers, freshness and purity of snow, accessories, outdoor temperature and the ‘golden ratio’ Phi (f), which is used as a marker for beauty and determines the visual appeal of objects. The formula for the perfect snowman can be expressed as:

Now, for the mere mathematical mortals among us, what this three-tiered tangle of symbols and numbers means is that the perfect snowman must:

- Be precisely 1.62m in height;

- Be made up of three tiered balls of snow with diameters of 30cm (head ball), 50cm (body ball) and 80cm (leg ball) respectively, following the golden ratio;

- Wear three accessories: hat, scarf and gloves;

- Have three buttons on the snowman’s chest each at an equal distance from one another;

- Have a nose made from a carrot that is exactly 4cm long;

- Have eyes no more than 5cm apart;

- Have four distinct limbs (such as arms made from sticks or snow and cleft legs);

- Be made using fresh, litter free snow that has just fallen; and

- Must be built while the outdoor temperature is at or below 0°C.

The above variables, when punched into the formula would return a perfect score of 100 out of 100. Dr. Hind’s formula has been designed to work in three related sections or ‘terms’, with each section addressing different aspects that comprise the perfect snowman.

The top term is all about the purity of the snow.  It gives a maximum score of 20 out of 100, with the score reducing for any pieces of litter or grass caught up in the snow, the time since the snow fell and the temperature rising above freezing.  It is based on e (natural logarithm = 2.72).

The middle term all about the extras.  It gives a maximum score of 30 out of 100, with the score reducing for less than three accessories being added, a nose that is too long and any more or less than three buttons.  It is based on Pi (p = 3.14159).

The bottom term is all about size and proportions.  It gives a maximum score of 50 out of 100, with the score reducing if the snowman’s height is not 1.62m high, or if the ratios of head, body and legs do not meet the ‘golden ratio’ Phi (f) of 1.62.

Graham Nicholls, Head of Home Insurance at MORE TH>N, said: “Building snowmen is one of the classic winter pastimes and a great opportunity for friends and family to come together. What’s more, snowmen can actually help to prevent household flooding, with their shape and construction slowing the melting of snow, which subsequently reduces the amount of water produced when the temperatures rise. The closer the snowman’s shape and size is to Dr Hind’s formula, the better its chances of curbing flood risk at home. With this in mind, and with experts forecasting plenty of snow this year, we’d encourage households everywhere to get out in their gardens and start building the best snowmen ever.”

MORE TH>N put the formula to the test by evaluating some of the nation’s favourite fictional snowmen against it. Unfortunately, While Olaf from Frozen is one of the nation’s favourite snowmen, with 36% of Britons favouring the popular Disney character over any other, his design is the furthest from perfection, according to the formula, with the science scoring him just 15 out of 100.

Conversely, while his snowman sadly melts away at the end of the story, the little boy in The Snowman can perhaps take solace in the knowledge that the eponymous flying figure from Raymond Briggs’s classic tale is one of the closest to meeting the criteria for the perfect snowman, scoring 73 out of 100.

Five fictional snowmen and how they rank against the formula:

1. Jack Frost (Jack Frost, 1998) – Score 80

2. The Snowman (The Snowman, 1978) - Score: 73

3. Frosty the Snowman (Frosty the Snowman, 1969) - Score: 49

4. Leon (Elf, 2003) - Score: 20

5. Olaf (Disney’s Frozen, 2013) - Score: 15

Away from fiction, real life snowman makers have some way to go to meet the high standards of the formula. Indeed, according to research by MORE TH>N, the majority of snowmen built in the UK don’t wear a hat (64%) or scarf (59%) and the average snowman height is 1.1m (3.65ft) - meaning they are 32% shorter than the perfect snowman calculated in Dr. Hind’s formula.

Dr James Hind, of Nottingham Trent University, said: “There are many contrasting opinions about what makes the perfect snowman, but this research should settle the debate, as it outlines the definitive blueprint for the ideal snowman according to science. All the signs point to snow falling this festive season and hopefully this formula will see households all over the UK inspired to create mathematically marvellous snowmen.”