Square Box, Round Pizza, Triangle Slices
Demystifying Pizza Geometry
One year ago today, while sitting in Giovanni’s pizza shop in Commack, NY, and enjoying a slice, the below sign on the wall caught my attention:
I thought to myself:
A circle has one side,
A triangle — three,
What shape is two-sided?
A square it can’t be!
In this cozy pizzeria setting, it turns out, there are geometrical shapes with 1, 3, and 4 sides, but none with 2. The sign was right. I’m confused.
In circles, triangles, and squares, the shape-defining line begins at a point and returns to that point, never crossing itself. A line with two ends doesn’t close back on itself … unless it follows the surface of the Earth all the way around until it does. But then it isn’t a line anymore, but a circle or an ellipse when looked at from the side. Despite the two-ended line being excluded from the trio of shapes, its contribution to the geometric wonders observed in round pizza should not be diminished. Without the line, there would be no triangles, and hence, no slices.
