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It's easy to draw a shape with 3 (triangle), 4 (square), 5 (pentagon or star shape), 6 (2 overlapping triangles), 8 (2 overlapping squares), 9 (3 overlapping tr

It's easy to draw a shape with 3 (triangle), 4 (square), 5 (pentagon or star shape), 6 (2 overlapping triangles), 8 (2 overlapping squares), 9 (3 overlapping triangles), and 10 (2 overlapping pentagons) sides; but a seven sided shape? Screw that.

function_seven 5y ago
You just reminded me of something from when I worked at a pizza place. Most of the time we sold pizzas cut the normal way. Either 6, 8, or 10 slices using a circular cutter. The normal style you might have in your kitchen. But one Wednesday each month, we had a massive lunch order for a local school. Hundreds of individually-boxed slices, delivered just before 11:30. The slice box was sized for a 1/7 slice of our extra large pizza. We had to use a "wagon wheel" type slicer for those. It was a huge stainless thing that must've cost a fortune. I always wondered why it was 7 slices and not 6 or 8. The best theory I could come up with was that these slices all had to be the exact same size; no variance from sloppy cutting. And the only way to ensure that would be to specify it as an odd number to make it impractical for the normal cutter.
- jimmygrapes 5y ago
  Did you have to use a different cheese as well? My brief stint in the field had us dragging out school district special cheese and a wagon wheel cutter as well (although it was 8 pieces). I can only assume that you're correct about strict tolerances in slice size. My. imagination creates a scenario where somebody got a small slice once and somebody overzealously mandated more equality.
  - function_seven 5y ago
    I don't think so. I was a delivery driver and so was also responsible for pulling the pizzas off the end of the oven conveyor, slicing them, and boxing them, so I can't be sure if some special government cheese was used in the prep line. But my memory of the pizzas was that they were the same, just sliced different.
tobr 5y ago
A pentagon is one of the hardest things to draw well.
- irrational 5y ago
  Draw a five pointed triangle (use the golden ratio if you can't do it by hand) and then connect the points. Pentagon!
  - dkersten 5y ago
    > five pointed triangle :-)
    - irrational 5y ago
      Oh, right. In my mind a 5 pointed star is made up of 5 triangles, each in a 1.618 ratio, so I mixed up star and triangle in my mind.
      - derrasterpunkt 5y ago
        Your username fits you well, sir.

function_seven 5y ago

You just reminded me of something from when I worked at a pizza place. Most of the time we sold pizzas cut the normal way. Either 6, 8, or 10 slices using a circular cutter. The normal style you might have in your kitchen. But one Wednesday each month, we had a massive lunch order for a local school. Hundreds of individually-boxed slices, delivered just before 11:30. The slice box was sized for a 1/7 slice of our extra large pizza. We had to use a "wagon wheel" type slicer for those. It was a huge stainless thing that must've cost a fortune. I always wondered why it was 7 slices and not 6 or 8. The best theory I could come up with was that these slices all had to be the exact same size; no variance from sloppy cutting. And the only way to ensure that would be to specify it as an odd number to make it impractical for the normal cutter.

jimmygrapes 5y ago
Did you have to use a different cheese as well? My brief stint in the field had us dragging out school district special cheese and a wagon wheel cutter as well (although it was 8 pieces). I can only assume that you're correct about strict tolerances in slice size. My. imagination creates a scenario where somebody got a small slice once and somebody overzealously mandated more equality.
- function_seven 5y ago
  I don't think so. I was a delivery driver and so was also responsible for pulling the pizzas off the end of the oven conveyor, slicing them, and boxing them, so I can't be sure if some special government cheese was used in the prep line. But my memory of the pizzas was that they were the same, just sliced different.

tobr 5y ago

A pentagon is one of the hardest things to draw well.

irrational 5y ago
Draw a five pointed triangle (use the golden ratio if you can't do it by hand) and then connect the points. Pentagon!
- dkersten 5y ago
  > five pointed triangle :-)
  - irrational 5y ago
    Oh, right. In my mind a 5 pointed star is made up of 5 triangles, each in a 1.618 ratio, so I mixed up star and triangle in my mind.
    - derrasterpunkt 5y ago
      Your username fits you well, sir.