Have invited a couple friends over to share a pizza with me....Ok, there's 79 of us and, yep, one pizza. Pathetic as this may sound, what is the minimum number of cuts required to allow each of us to have a piece?

shady shaker

I would say 79. Two cuts would be required to remove the first piece, but the last piece would not need cutting. (I've just received your invitation btw, and will take this opportunity to say "thanks, but no thanks". When I last ate pizza, I broke wind so badly, the neighbours thought that we'd had a small earth tremor! Apr 02 05, 8:20 AM

MaggieG 5

Would a diametrical cut count as one or two? Apr 02 05, 8:23 AM

coolio_daniel_uk

maybe cutting squares would take fewer cuts Apr 02 05, 8:29 AM

gmackematix

Twelve cuts does sound remarkably few to obtain 79 pieces but then maths is often counter-intuitive. Apr 02 05, 8:47 AM

gmackematix

If, however, being Australian, you have boomerang shaped pizzas then I feel a mathematical headache coming on... Apr 02 05, 8:48 AM

Tamarind_Ja

38 cuts, to make it into slices. Apr 02 05, 9:33 AM

mibmob

I expect that this Q will be considered something for the forums by a certain person...... Shady - too much info there, mate. Apr 02 05, 9:41 AM

kaylofgorons

You're having one pizza for 79 people? I can't get four people to agree on what pizza they want, so I'm impressed that you've got 79 together for this one. Like mibby said, tmi, tmi! Apr 02 05, 9:54 AM

Flynn_17

25? Apr 02 05, 12:40 PM

Baloo55th

Just out of curiosity, what diameter is this pizza? Apr 02 05, 2:19 PM

SOTHC

No cuts at all. Just pass it round and let everybody take a bite. Apr 02 05, 3:16 PM

peasypod

Well fellas, I'm afraid gmack gets the Earl Grey for his 12, no need for the headache tablets.. Funny how people automatically think triangles when they think pizza....A mathematical brain would think otherwise. Apr 02 05, 3:34 PM

joezhou300

if you order an pizza the size of an UFO Apr 02 05, 4:26 PM

SOTHC

I had one of those Unidentified Fried Objects the other day and I have not recovered yet Apr 02 05, 4:59 PM

SOTHC

I have just tried it and managed it with 7 cuts which gave enough pieces to have 49 bits left over for those who wanted seconds. The last cut was a bit of a struggle though as you keep having to pile the pieces, left over from each previous cut, on top of each other. You get 2 pieces after the first cut , 4 after the second , 8 after the third and so on. Apr 02 05, 5:05 PM

SFA_52

Zero. You want everyone to have a piece, but who said you had to CUT the pizza? You could all take puny bites of it. That would be going without maths, but would also be... disturbingly unhygenic... T_T Apr 02 05, 7:48 PM

gmackematix

I reckon some of this Earl Grey should go to SM as I didn't think about rearranging the pieces after each cut so that we have 2^N pieces from N cuts. To be quite honest, he should get most of the tea as I clearly didn't think about it much at all to have missed that. Apr 02 05, 10:03 PM

peasypod

Good point there gmack. You can share your Earl Grey with SM, I'm sure he'll share his banana with you next time... Apr 03 05, 5:06 AM