Secret of perfect necktie

It is a question that has vexed generations of men, but at last two scientists have come up with an answer to that most important sartorial question: how to tie the perfect necktie.

By unravelling the mathematical secrets of knots, physicists Thomas Fink and Yong Mao have produced mind-boggling equations to describe the four most common methods of donning a necktie - and have come up with six new 'smart' knots of their own.

The scientists documented 85 knots that were possible with a conventional tie. But only a few met the correct aesthetic parameters.

These included the four knots already in common usage, plus six more that were unknown.

Writing in the scientific journal Nature, the two, from Cambridge University's Cavendish Laboratory, traced the simplest conventional tie knot - the 'four-in-hand' - to late 19th-century England.

The Duke of Windsor - King Edward VIII's title after his 1936 abdication - is credited with introducing the Windsor knot; from this evolved a smaller derivative, the Half-Windsor. In 1989 the Pratt knot, the first new knot to appear for more than 50 years, was revealed on the front page of the New York Times.