Can you cut a cake fairly to solve this middle school math problem?

[popeyespappy]

As long as Losty used a square pan to bake her square cake and spread the frosting evenly there isn't a problem.

Y'all aren't accusing Losty of sloping the icing on unevenly, are you? I sure hope not because those kinds of accusations have consequences.

[Chad32]

Seems like an easy problem just slice it from one end to the other in five pieces. I don't know if there's supposed to be some trick to this, but I'm too lazy to read six pages to find out.

[popeyespappy]

Seems like an easy problem just slice it from one end to the other in five pieces. I don't know if there's supposed to be some trick to this, but I'm too lazy to read six pages to find out.

If you do it your way everyone is going to get the same amount of cake, but the 2 people on the ends are going to get a lot more icing than the 3 in the middle.

[Chad32]

Only if the icing is spread unevenly. Is that part of the problem? If she did spread it unevenly, and everyone's going to bicker about wanting exactly the same amount of cake and icing, then just spread it evenly then cut. Or tell people to not be petty.

[popeyespappy]

Only if the icing is spread unevenly. Is that part of the problem? If she did spread it unevenly, and everyone's going to bicker about wanting exactly the same amount of cake and icing, then just spread it evenly then cut. Or tell people to not be petty.

When Poca, Alex, Rob and Whatshisname came for a visit, Losty baked a cake.  It was a square cake which she frosted on the sides and on top with yummy cream cheese frosting.

The OP specified icing on the top and on the 5 cm high sides of the cake. If you cut it the way you described everyone is going to get 802 cm of icing on the top of the cake, the pieces in the middle will get an additional 402 cm of icing on the sides, and the two pieces on the end are going to get an additional 1402 cm of icing on the sides. That's 1202 cm of icing total on the middle pieces and 2202 cm of icing total on the end pieces.

[Joods]

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5 cuts. Each running from the center to the outside edge. In the case of a 20 x 20 x 5 cake each cut needs to be 16 linear centimeters along the outside edge. That would give everyone 160 square centimeters of icing and 400 cubic centimeters of cake.

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Hey wait a minute, ain't it cheating to use a ruler to meaure precise distances?
And if a ruler is allowed, wouldn't it be far simpler to just make straight cuts right across the cake at 4cm intervals to get 5 rectangular slices or have I got my maths wrong?

You must be incredibly dense to be necroposting a thread that's had no comments for nearly 8 months.

[Whateverist]

Only if the icing is spread unevenly. Is that part of the problem? If she did spread it unevenly, and everyone's going to bicker about wanting exactly the same amount of cake and icing, then just spread it evenly then cut. Or tell people to not be petty.

It is that attitude which makes pitching a math problem so hard.  

[Joods]

How about I just give everyone icing-less cake and I keep the icing all to myself?

I do make a pretty badass icing, if I do say so myself. Many of my fellow students in school begged me to make their graduation cakes for them.

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And therein lies the solution:

You scrape all of the icing off the cake first, then cut the cake into five equal portions. Then you take the icing and divide it into five equal portions and let everyone put their share of icing on their share of cake.


/thread.

[Whateverist]

As long as Losty used a square pan to bake her square cake and spread the frosting evenly there isn't a problem.

Y'all aren't accusing Losty of sloping the icing on unevenly, are you? I sure hope not because those kinds of accusations have consequences.

I think Chthulthuluuu's point was that if we cut it into five equal rectangular strips lengthwise then besides the issue of the frosting on the end pieces, there would also be less cake on those two end pieces.

Assuming our cutting into five equally thick rectangular strips is based on the external dimensions of the cake as measured on the frosted cake, then the thickness of the frosting itself will be contributing to the thickness of the slice for the end pieces but  not for the three middle pieces.  So, however thick the frosting is applied, that is how much cake the end pieces are not getting.  (Naturally -if I wasn't counting calories- I'd gladly trade that thin slice of cake for extra frosting.)

[Dropship]

Hey wait a minute, ain't it cheating to use a ruler to meaure precise distances?
And if a ruler is allowed, wouldn't it be far simpler to just make straight cuts right across the cake at 4cm intervals to get 5 rectangular slices or have I got my maths wrong?

You must be incredibly dense to be necroposting a thread that's had no comments for nearly 8 months.

Hello missus, and incidentally what does this mean in your profile, is it a Klingon delicacy or a key to activating the 7th Stargate quadrant?-
신이 진짜라면 자기애자가 될거야.