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I apologize. These presumptions are all valid, and it is my fault for not having defined them better.
The "pie" is circular, not square for starters.
A slice is to directly come down with a cutting knife once through the pie. In other words, it is a straight line which divides every piece it intersects with into two smaller pieces. Nothing is said for these two pieces, therefore they can be any shape and size.
Therefore, Bernie's diagraph would depict an accurate slicing of the pie, if it were in fact a circular chocolate pie with a pink table rather than a rectangular chocolate cake with a pink table.
By placing two slices vertically and two slices horizontally, you create a 3x3 grid of pieces. You can increase up to 50 by 50 vertical and horizontal slices (placed very close together so that some don't intersect outside the circular region).
But that isn't the right answer. You can have more than this.
If the world should blow itself up,the last audible voice would be an expert saying it can't be done
This post was edited by Hawkeye on Mar 17, 2006.
I believe that the answer in infinite.
The only thing I am fairly sure of is exactly that it cannot be infinite slices. I mean, I can see your point, but if you keep cutting the cake, at a certain point you'll have only crumbles left, and I don't think that is a valid premise.
However, if crumbles counted, my formula would count the fact that you can slice the cake 100 times horizontally, 100 times vertically, and you can repeat the process on the new slices. The problem would be, when would you stop? I mean, when will you be cutting only crumbles?
I am a bad mathematician, and therefore either I say infinite as our good fellow suggested, or I say "whoo let's get the guys on it" :P Afterall, when I was in high school I was not good with such problems either, and guys are known to be more knowledgeable than girls in maths.
Un bacio è un'apostrofo rosa scritto tra le parole "ti amo".
No, you only have 100 slices you can make. I just gave a for instance as 50 of those being horizontal and 50 being vertical, though you can slice it in any random way you wish. And afterwards the number of pieces made from that is what is important.
Also, you can't cut in 3 dimensions. This is not 3 dimentional pie! So no cutting from the sides or anything. Only from above.
If the world should blow itself up,the last audible voice would be an expert saying it can't be done
Since it seems you guys have given up, I will reveal the answer.
If we take a look at the pattern we get:
1 slice - 2
2 slices - 4
3 slices - 7
4 slices - 11
...
n slices - ?
The formula is (can be found without just looking, by counting line intersections):
Max_Pieces = 1 + 1 + 2 + 3 + ... + n
= 1 + n(n + 1)/2
= (n^2 + n + 2) / 2
Max_Pieces for 100 slices = (1002 + 100 + 2) / 2
= 10102 / 2
= 5051
If the world should blow itself up,the last audible voice would be an expert saying it can't be done
This post was edited by Hawkeye on Mar 20, 2006.