Maths Pizza problem explained.

. The story In a move to increase profits, the local pizza store (insert franchise name here) has changed the diameter of its large pizzas from 12 inches down to 11 inches while keeping prices unchanged. Though as little and insignificant 1 inch difference may seem to be. As a keen mathematician you feel compelled to discover the awful truth behind this gross injustice affecting all pizza lovers. During your investigation you must uncover How much pizza have we actually lost going from this downsize? Think of Area difference in cm2 Does this downsize make a significant difference? Put it into perspective in terms of a normal slice from a 12 inch sized pizza.

Assumptions and needed information 1 inch = 2.54cm A pizza is cut into 8 equally sized slices

The solution First we need to recognise that our pizza sizes are given in inches, and that we need to convert inches back into centimetres. We are given the information that 1inch = 2.54cm. This means that for every 1 inch there are 2.54 centimetres. So by that logic we can convert the inches into centimetres by simply multiplying 2.54 by the number of inches. So then the diameters of the pizzas become 12inches x 2.54 = 30.48cm for the 12 pizza 11inches x 2.54 = 27.94cm for the 11 pizza The next step is to realise that we are dealing with a difference of two areas. Difference usually involves a minus sign does it not? So to find the area weve lost from downsizing the pizza we need to find the difference in areas of the two pizzas. It may help to picture the following in your mind

Big pizza minus Smaller Pizza = Pizza Ring (empty hole in the middle) So if we understand the concept (the idea) then lets go ahead and work it out mathematically!

We know from attending maths class that A= is the area of a circle with radius r

So we have the formula for the area and we need the radius of our pizzas. The information we have been given thus far in our problem is the diameter of our pizzas in inches which we converted to centimetres. The definition of diameter is: A straight line passing from side to side (edge to edge) through the centre of a circle. The definition of a radius is: A straight line from the centre to the circumference (edge) of a circle. This means that the diameter is twice the length of a radius, and so the radius is half the length of a diameter. So we have 30.48cm 2 = 15.24cm = radius of 12 pizza 27.94cm 2 = 13.97cm = radius of 11 pizza gives

Then substituting the radius into the equation A = A = 15.24 = 729.66 A = 13.97 = 613.12

, Area of 12 pizza , Area of 11 pizza

The difference between the two is therefore 729.66 613.12 = 116.54

So how significant is this 116.54 ? Let us compare that with the area of a normal slice from a 12 pizza. There are a few ways we can find the area of a slice of 12 pizza. For the more mathematically minded, one may be able to quickly use the given information that A pizza is cut into 8 equally sized slices, and see that we only need to multiply the total area of a 12 pizza by like so 729.66 = 91.2 , Area of One slice of 12 pizza

The other method takes slightly longer as it involves more thinking, but eventually the problem reduces down to the same expression above. For example, we recognise that a pizza cut into 8 identical pieces that each piece is just a sector of 45 degrees. We can plug this back into our equation for the area of a sector which gives pizza Conclusion: We have been royally ripped off, as we have lost over an entire SLICE of pizza as a result of this downsizing. = (15.24) = 729.66 = 91.2 , Area of One slice of 12