parking formula 300x187 The Formula for Perfect ParkingHow many times have you driven past a space in parked cars and carried on looking for another space thinking that your car won’t fit into the tiny little gap?

If you are one of the many drivers throughout the UK that dreaded the parallel parking part of the driving test then hopefully mathematician Simon Blackburn and Vauxhall motors can solve your problem. By using an equation taking several factors into account you will be able to figure out whether you can get your car into that tempting gap during the Christmas rush.

Professor Blackburn was commissioned to figure out the formula using relatively simple geometry and Pythagoras’ Theorem to help the numerous people who struggle with squeezing their cars into tight parking spaces. His paper, The Geometry of Perfect Parking, covers the mathematical principles behind deciding which gap would be a great place to easily park you car with enough space to manoeuvre in and get back out.

The equation is fairly simple and relates to the turning circle of the car, it’s wheelbase and the width of the car behind which you will end up parked. All of these numbers, when put into the equation, tell you the ideal size of space to get your car into. So in the one of the examples used a car with a turning circle diameter of 10.80m (therefore a radius of 5.4m), a wheelbase of 2.6m and the car to be parked behind has a width of 1.7m, then the ideal gap for parking your car into needs to be your car’s length plus and additional 1.43m.

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