Saturday, May 15, 2004

Pizza surface-area-to-price ratio

There has been some dispute between ourselves and the toddlers (our daughter and her friend) regarding who gets to turn the knobs on the gas stove. I wanted some way to turn off the gas supply to the stove when not in use, so that if the squibs get at it, there will be no release of airborne combustibles and malodorous mercaptins. The shutoff valve is behind the stove and down near the floor, and a neighbor's son suggested running a rod down there with an 'L' bend at the end. Also, one at the top. I set it up yesterday and it works perfectly. The attachment mode was zip ties plus copper wire.

I really like the sense of progress that comes from getting certain things done. Like this.

Last night my wife and I were planning to order pizza, and I developed the Pizza Surface-Area-To-Price Ratio. We wanted three toppings on a Very Large Pizza. The 18-inch pizza was $18.49. However, I noticed a coupon for two 12-inch pizzas with up to three toppings, for a total of $15. I have many advanced mathematicians as friends in the Anglo-Polish community, so it is with some hesitation that I now embark on my proof, but I venture that:


18-inch pizza surface area = 56.52, at $18.49 PSATP Ratio = 3.055
14-inch pizza surface area = 43.96, at $14 PSATP Ratio = 4.88
2 12-inch pizzas surface area = 75.36, at $15 PSATP Ratio = 5.02


Clearly, the PSATP Ratio favors the 2 12-inch pizza coupon heavily. However, as the wait time for delivery as announced by the pizza purveyors was 90 minutes, we ate the store-bought frozen pizza at home. It was delicious.
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