20 Aug 2013

General Pizza Slicing: Middle Secondary Mathematics Competition Question


Find the maximum number of slices of pizza that can be obtained using 20 straight-line cuts?

This is an extension to the earlier Pizza Slices problem. Let’s assume that a pizza is a flat two-dimensional circle. A cut is a straight-line chord that splits the circle into two regions; thereby creating two slices of pizza. We cannot rearrange the slices between each cut.

What is the general formula for the maximum number of pieces of pizza from N straight-line cuts?


[Edited to 20 cuts to match the G+ posts - as there are no answers as yet, I hope this is not a problem.]


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