The Perfect Way To Slice a Pizza 282
Posted
by
samzenpus
from the equal-distribution-of-the-pie dept.
from the equal-distribution-of-the-pie dept.
iamapizza writes "New Scientist reports on the quest of two math boffins for the perfect way to slice a pizza. It's an interesting and in-depth article; 'The problem that bothered them was this. Suppose the harried waiter cuts the pizza off-center, but with all the edge-to-edge cuts crossing at a single point, and with the same angle between adjacent cuts. The off-center cuts mean the slices will not all be the same size, so if two people take turns to take neighboring slices, will they get equal shares by the time they have gone right round the pizza — and if not, who will get more?' This is useful, of course, if you're familiar with the concept of 'sharing' a pizza."
The results are less interesting (Score:4, Interesting)
than the story that led to the project, I bet.
Shows you that even geeks have parties sometimes. We just have different topics between the question who pays for the pizza and who gets the last slice.
My Esperiement (Score:2, Interesting)
One day, I ordered a medium pizza (14 inch) with my standard way: Italian sausage, green pepper, onion, black olive, double shrooms and tomato, with the crust well done. I had them cut that into six pieces instead of their usual eight pieces. I ate the whole thing in 12 minutes and 34 seconds.
The next day, I ordered the same pizza (from my same fave pizza place down the street), everything was the same, but I had them cut it into their standard eight slices. I ate this in 13 minutes and 17 seconds.
So, although it took me less time to eat the six piece version of the same pizza, I also felt fuller.
Conclusion: With fewer slices, I ate them faster and, as a result, felt fuller.
From now on, if I am really hungry, I am getting the six slice version.
Tricks from insiders (Score:5, Interesting)
I worked at a couple of pizza places when I was in high school. There are actually two perfect ways to slice a pizza:
Cut it into 5... (Score:3, Interesting)
Cutting the pizza into 10 and combining slices is considered ungentlemanly behavior (i.e. cheating) in this particular sport.
Re:Unsure. (Score:2, Interesting)
Not necessarily. A metric pizza would have a circumference of 1 meter, and therefore have a diameter of roughly 30 cm. With a diameter of 100/pi, you would have a radius of 50/pi, and an area of 10,000/pi cm2. Dividing that up into six slices would give you a little over 500cm2 per person, which is about as round a number as one might expect. 10 slices gives 300 cm2, which is in no way metric.
Re:Tricks from insiders (Score:5, Interesting)
For some reason the assumption is that everyone wants the same size slice of pizza. I disagree. I prefer a pizza with a variety of slice sizes.
For instance, large slices are good for large appetites/people (men), while medium and small slices are good for smaller appetitets/people(women and children). Also, the small ones are a perfect finisher when you have just consumed a number of large slices and are just about to bust.
Also, the slice porportion and their accompanying aesthetics are important. Somedays the fat-looking big slices that are almost a fourth of the pizza look best. Other times the skinny ones that are so slim they can't even legitamately accommodate an intact piece of pepperoni appeal to me. Proportion can weigh as heavily as quantity and distribution of toppings when it comes to choosing the perfect slice.
Personally, I would be interested in a cutting pattern that guaranteed the most variety of slice sizes.