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The Perfect Way To Slice a Pizza
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."
My biggest pizza cutting dilemma happened just the other day. I wasn't sure I could eat six pieces, so I cut it into four.
-Troll, Flamebait, and Offtopic are NOT equivalent to disagreement.
Paging PizzaAnalogyGuy!
Do we have to talk about Pizza?
You can cut a pizza?
That is why the perfect way to cut a pizza is in small squares.
Big friggin' laser beams.
buy another pizza, more to share, more potential for leftovers. seriously.
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.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
With a carbon dioxide laser, of course. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej3KSfVU5aw
First a /. poll on pizza and now this... I'm surprised though that there wasn't a reference to slicing different styles of pizza's. Thin crispy crust can really only be cut in triangles (same with stuffed crusts!) while the soggy sloppy pizza's would benefit from smaller splices. Of course size does matter so slicing an extra large pizza would almost always be sliced different from a smaller size.
What a surprise! Another useless idle post by samzenpus.
When faced with this problem, I usually take the slice which has the most pepperoni on it. As for pizzas without pepperoni, the method might need some modifications, such as counting the ham pieces, anchovies etc. You might not end up with a largest slice, but you will get the most meat which is fair enough for me.
Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
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.
If it's just two of us. I try to find the cut that best divides the pizza in half and just separate then before either of us takes a slice.
Is it just me, or do you hate it when people say "Is it just me..."?
Sometimes if I'm not that hungry, I will only have 6 slices. What's sharing? How can you P2P a pizza?
"Science" and "Idle" look nothing alike. How did this article get into "Science"?
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
...because it promises more than it delivers. The title implies there's a universally perfect way to cut a pizza so everyone gets an equal share. Well, duh. What TFM tells you is how to figure out if everyone is getting an equal share.
I'll save you some time: Ensure you make an even number of cuts >= 4.
1) A novice pizza cutter can buy a metallic device you place over the pizza which guides your pizza cutter. I worked at a pizza shop and they had one...nobody ever used it.
2) Two people can easily share 50/50 split of the pizza. The only requirement is that one of the cuts needs to have gone straight down the middle, and that is where you split the pizza from. Essentially, the middle cut is the border. All other cuts just make for a weird shaped pizza slice.
3) 3 people means cutting the pizza into slices divisible by 3, which is harder.
4) 4 people = cutting slices divisible by 2, but now you need to concern yourself with two lines perfectly intersecting the middle - plus you either get 4 or 8 slices.
Pizza shops cut their pizzas to serve 8 slices. That's 4 cuts which would resemble the insignia on the british flag.
I do not support "The Man". I also do not support your irrational stupidity
a slightly foreign concept here, but usually the woman/women get(s) the smaller pieces and everyone's happy. Simple.
Other than saying 'rectangular strips', the article does not describe any method to do this. The answer lies in the problem. Cut it perfectly into even sections. To even describe this problem you have to toss that situation out. This reads like a mathematician's dime novel. In short, it sucks. I want my ten minutes back, please.
...a plasma rifle in the 40 watt range.
The concentration and distribution of the toppings. Without these, their solution is incomplete.
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
Or a Katana.
Best Slashdot Co
...and order ANOTHER pizza if someone's that worried about getting an "equal" share!!
I worked at a couple of pizza places when I was in high school. There are actually two perfect ways to slice a pizza:
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
I prefer to roll mine into a giant tube, thus consuming only one piece.
Also, when people ask what I had for breakfast, I can respond with "A wrap"
Name...That...Autocomplete!
Can we never use the word "boffin" on Slashdot again please? I believe that word is a British colloquial term for "someone who uses their brain to work, but I don't understand it so I'll make up my own word". Around here we're decently intelligent, you can use a word like "mathematician" and not confuse anyone.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
I can just see it now. Some pinhead manager is going to read about this and come to the conclusion that this pizza problem would make a great job interview question to weed out software engineer candidates.
One person cuts, the second person gets to choose...
At least that is the way my momma taught me :)
To cut the pizza into 42 pieces.
I always maximize my pizza by cutting it into 11 pieces. That way I get much more pizza than most people. I get 11 slices.
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat
"Suppose the harried waiter cuts the pizza off-centre, but with all the edge-to-edge cuts crossing at a single point, and with the same angle between adjacent cuts."
Now if a waiter (or actually chef) cuts the pizza off-centre, they're almost certainly not going to make the angles consistent.
(which of course isn't to say that it's not a fun paper)
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
There is a poster here called PizzaAnalogyGuy whose gimmick involves making a pizza analogy in each post. Can we please get a pizza analogy about slicing pizza?
The article got it completely wrong!!! Cutting the pizza into squares is the best way! My brother-in-law and I like the crust, my wife and sister-in-law like the middle. This way all four of us get the parts of the pizza we like the most. The ladies don't eat as much, so he and I do have to suffer through some of the inside pieces, but they are small and don't fall apart like the long wedges. And since there is usually a few pieces left over, it isn't important what was fair, only that we got enough to eat. The smaller pieces also mean that no one has to cut a slice in half just because they only want a little bit more.
Sadly, very few pizza places will do this. Our favorite that still does this is Marion's pizza in Dayton, Ohio.
I rarely read replies, it's my opinion and if you thought about your opinion a little more, I'm OK with that.
I always go for the piece which has cheese and sauce going closest to the edge, so that I have less un-topped crust and more topped pizza. If it's your thing, you can also go for the piece with the bubble.
Okay, so a three dimensional pizza would be a calzone, but what would a four-dimensional pizza look like?
More importantly, on a four-dimensional pizza, can you fill the crust with cheese?
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
I've seen something like this used at the Costco cafe. Seems to work easier than doing math.
?
Your words confuse me greatly.
Guaranteed! This comment 100% Anthrax free!
Then nobody has to argue and everybody overeats.
Hopefully it hasn't been funded with public money.
I'll grab the two largest slices (which are usually adjacent), fold them over and shovel them in my mouth while you are still negotiating a protocol. And I'll pull over extra cheese and toppings from their neighbors while I'm doing it.
-- I was raised on the command line, bitch
The problem is, the distribution of the ingrediants is not uniform, so even if you find a way to divide a circle evenly you still have to take in consideration the weight of each piece and distribution of toppings.
CS: It is all sink or swim...oh and did I mention there are sharks in that water?
The one article that would actually benefit from a 'pie' chart and it is omitted *sigh*
...equal pieces, for a potentially amusing drunkard's challenge.
Cutting the pizza into 10 and combining slices is considered ungentlemanly behavior (i.e. cheating) in this particular sport.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
S-L-I-C-E, slice me nice!
My other account has a 3-digit UID.
when I worked at Godfather's Pizza, I finally "graduated" to cut table. The guy to cut the pizzas and call out the orders. I used to enjoy having fun sometimes when a pair of semi-buzzed guys would come in and order a pizza. Cut the pizza into 9 pieces with the roller, rather than the rocker, and watch them get upset over who gets the last piece! Ah, fun times as a teenager...
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Best ever was a large ring with blades already set up in place. The ring was the exact fit over the pizza and the slices where exactly the same.
This isn't a problem in America. We each just get one to ourselves.
If the pizza was a pie chart for what people would do if they found a million dollars, the fucker gave me the "donate it to charity" slice.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
Are we talking perfectly round, frictionless pizzas?
With the first link, the chain is forged.
This guy was way over thinking this. If two people share a pizza and there is at least one cut that goes directly through the center then the freaking thing is cut in half! It doesn't matter if any of the other cuts are wacky, and you certainly don't have to try and figure out the area of each individual piece trying to determine how to take turns one slice at a time!
If you cut a pizza off "center", you just moved the center of the radial circle that is being cut. So the center of the pizza is not the center of the cut--you've just moved the center.
And this is, why I am no mathematician. ^^
“in-depth article” and “slicing pizza” should never ever appear in the same sentence. Ever.
Suddenly I am much happier about my life. :D
And if you ever went out for even once in your life, so can you!
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
I'm no nerd but I do put pride into a perfectly crisped pizza from the pizza oven, and the well designed slices to serve said pizza. Here goes:
Standard Issue:
Serves 1-3, Hungry
- Standard 8 or 12 slice cut through center. Pull every other slice back half an inch to achieve fast heat dissipation. 1-2 minutes cooling time for sensitive mouths. 12 slices for faster eating.
Bring It On:
Serves 1-2, Real Hungry
- Standard 6-slice cut. Serve immediately. Eat at own risk.
Bar Food:
Serves 1-4, Real Hungry
- Standard 16 slice squares (4x4). Triangle pieces cool fastest for snacking.
Engineer's Special:
Serves 2-6, Variable, Real Hungry
- Hybrid, and personal Best Design. Quarter-cut (even 4 slices), stripe another through the center (now 6 slices). Cut the remaining 2 quarters into square quarters. Fast, uncomplicated, and extremely useful when there's no time for "how hungry?" questions (party/group/meeting/etc). Drop-n-serve. At 4+ people be immediately ready to throw in a second pizza.
Pentagram Pizza:
Serves 6+, Hungry
- The ultimate party pizza: Pentagram Pizza. Literally cut the pizza into a pentagram shape. The edges will then need to be halved with a stripe to the center without crossing into the pentagon center. Proceed to preach loudly (and convincingly) about how evil the center piece is (each layer is individually more evil than the last, so you can imagine how evil the center is, etc), then commit blasphemy when numerous people are standing around suspiciously eying that last, large, delicious looking sacred slice, by eating it yourself. Heresy!! This only works once btw.
Hmm...
Pay me $1000 and I'll develop one that gives you a full dozen slices.
This is a good example of how unfair life in general is.
Usually, who gets the biggest piece depends on who is most senior, or who is fastest at grabbing. Seniority comes in if two people try to fight over it.
Just like life.
I am eager to share my knowledge about pizza cutting. The best choice is simply /2: an easy orthogonal cut which gives abundant equal pieces to all. Nevermind you might need more than just one pizza. :)
Did i mention i am Italian? Does this yield me more authority?
Ciao a tutti!
Costco has a metal mask that allows the server to cut the pie to 6 slices evenly. This is a fully solved problem. No skills needed beyond cutting between the rails.
I like my pizza cut in 8 nice triangular slices. My wife likes squares. I actually cut half in slices, and half in squares.
See my Home Theater
'in-depth article' and 'slicing pizza' should never ever appear in the same sentence. Ever.
Agreed, the serving size for a good Pizza is '1 pie', so what's the practical application here? Oh, right, they're mathematicians, and perhaps they eat at Pizza Hut.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Damn. Here I thought this was gonna be a way to guarantee all cuts were exactly in the center, to avoid odd little rhomboids and whatnot that are technically cut into the center, and not just the equivalent of taking an infinitely large, perfectly cut pizza, then stamping out a round subset somewhere abouts the center point.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
I'm going to burn some karma for this, but there was a children's book i read ages ago that i thought was really witty.
It was about an octopus that made pizza, and then got the wrong oven shipped, that ended up puffing his pizzas into 3d pizzas.
It had a detective who i believe was a cat.
Anyway it was a really cool little book that helped kids visualize the 2d->3d transformation.
I was gonna post a link saying THAT's what 3d pizzas lookedlike, but i can't find it, so anyone have a clue?
You never realize how much manually made unmanaged "linked" lists suck, till you have src.link.link.link.link...
The mathematicians (or boffins, I'm not sure which) have made a mistake of omission for something that their extensive experiences has caused them to neglect: is there an odd or even number of pieces? Cutting it into an odd number with the points near the center can be done while adhering to the definition give. It can also be done if the cuts go all the way across but the crossover is at the edge.
As for 'who will get more?' the answer in my case is simple: me. I spent too many years as a starving grad student. I developed the reflexes necessary to grab the first piece, and lost every bit of self-respect I ever had that would prevent me from taking the last. And if I can get my hands on the little rolling cutting wheel pizza cutter, do NOT reach for a piece without letting me know what you're doing because I get very protective of any pizzas in my vicinity.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
Don't slice the pizza at all. Keep it all for yourself. Sure, it'll be harder to eat, but at least you'll be guaranteed to get the whole thing.
The origamians have an interesting sub-solution. Provided that there are an even number of slices, and all slices contain the middle of the pizza, if we enumerate the slices, the total area of the even slices will equal the total area of the odd slices.
She's actually smarter than you, socially.
She knew if she was ordering for three, a multiple-of-three slices would give each person the same amount. That's fair if you are sharing. If ordering for four, a multiple of four. If two, an even number.
Maybe she was even more advanced than that, knowing that "Joe will probably want two, Tom probably will only eat one, Marcia another one, and my pig-assed boyfriend will suck down four slices, no matter how big or small they are. I will make do with one, so that's 9 slices..."
She knew "screw the size of each piece", what mattered was the subjective fairness of the division of the pie.
Your argument has convinced me that giving women voting rights and equal rights was a horrible mistake and a crime against humanity (yes including women). Can we figure out a way to correct this peacefully or do we all have to become muslims now?
Only half joking.
Personally, I would be interested in a cutting pattern that guaranteed the most variety of slice sizes.
Sloppy/uneven/nonparallel checkerboard slicing. It's the usual way to slice big pizzas around here and lets people choose between crust or no crust as well as size.
Radial slicing is for tiny pizzas and US amateurs (oh the redundancy!), and real Italian small pizza comes uncut with a fork and knife and a (non-stemmed) glass of house wine even in the cheapest places. Enough said.