Mathematical Formula for Loss of Holiday Shopping Enthusiasm

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http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/news/ ... isery.html

OUR enthusiasm for Christmas shopping will wane and present-buying will become a stressful nightmare in two-and-a-half days, a maths expert predicted today.

There are still 23 shopping days to Christmas, but a university mathematics head has calculated the precise moment when the pleasures of festive shopping become outweighed by the stresses and irritants.

Dr Tony Mann has pinpointed 12.30pm on Saturday as the moment shoppers suffer most, and has named this day `Black Saturday'.

Using both negative and positive factors Dr Mann, head of maths at Greenwich University, London, arrived at a mathematical formula to calculate the moment.

Size of crowds, congestion on public transport, distances walked to purchase gifts, postage deadlines and schools and universities breaking up were all factored into the equation.

The professor arrived at E(t) A(1-ke to the power of at) where E is amount of enthusiasm, t is time left in days, a is the rate at which enthusiasm is lost, A is a factor to express enthusiasm at 100 per cent and k is a factor to express enthusiasm at 0 per cent.

Dr Mann said: "As we get nearer Christmas, the initial enthusiasm dies down and stress rises due to external factors."

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Not posted in news and current events because a. this came out last year and b. this is too cool to restrict to a lesser-viewed forum.

What do you guys think?

That's why I get my Christmas Shopping done early. A crowd filled with Adults and their Offspring is bearable for me. But you can forget about me being around crowds of NT Teens and Younger Adults.

Who in their right mind would try to carry all that crap on public transportation? What they need to do is say, "Sorry but you're all getting screwed this year and I'm getting a car!".

I've already done my Christmas shopping. No worries here.

I keep forgetting it's christmas *goes shopping tomorrow* - I'll just buy the minimum amount of presents needed

I never let it get to me. It sometimes seems like the world is going insane around me.

I bought my first gift the other day, a cool a gallilean thermometer. I'd better do some more shopping and quickly I suppose.