Today is Shrove Tuesday, better known to some as Pancake Day. To celebrate this glorious day of fried goodness, mathematicians from the University of Sheffield have developed a formula for the perfect pancake.

The University’s Maths Society collaborated with chefs from the local Meadowhall Shopping Centre to create a formula that works out how much of each ingredient you need to add to the mix, taking into account your preference of thickness, pan size, and number of pancakes desired. All quantities are based on a recipe from the British TV chef Delia Smith.

^{University of Sheffield Maths Society}

If you’re too busy fine-tuning your flipping technique to work out the formula yourself, the University of Sheffield has also created a spreadsheet where you can just enter your preferences and it will do the legwork for you.

The quantities above are based on this Delia Smith recipe and are meant only as a guide.

Gaby Thompson, President of the University of Sheffield’s Maths Society and one of the formula's creators, said: "Cooking is a fun and innovative way to demonstrate how maths can be used and explored in everyday life and we hope by developing this formula it will encourage more people to engage with the subject and help to combat maths phobia."