If you can hold on for for a maximum of 6 minutes (but usually 2 or 3), Dr Cleo Cresswell of Macquarie University says you can find a carpark in even the busiest Shopping Centres this Christmas season!   As a mathematician, Dr Cresswell has worked out just how to easily locate a parking spot without driving around and around, using some not so simple maths.

Dr Cresswell calculated that if the average time shopping is 3 hours, and allowing for other factors, then the maximum wait time in a block of 30 cars will be no longer than 6 minutes. So by just ‘hovering’ by a large block of cars with a little patience, anyone can find  spot!

Chris Urquhart from Chanel 9’s A Current Affair tried the math out in typical end-of-year shopping centre carpark mayhem recently, and found the usual wait time using the technique in fact to be just 2 to 3 minutes!

This mathematically proven formula puts to rest many of the myths about finding parking, and turns out to be easier than most of them!!  Us scientifically-minded souls here at SpaceOut will be trying this technique out this Christmas. Let us know if the technique works for you too!!