Sir Francis Galton’s Scientific Priniciple of Cutting Cake
“The ordinary method of cutting out a wedge is very faulty,” wrote Sir Francis Galton, a British mathematician, in a 1906 letter to the journal Nature concerning the scientific principles of cake-cutting.
More than a century later, cake lovers might finally be ready to face this truth.
A video of author Alex Bellos demonstrating Galton’s alternative technique — which involves taking long, thin pieces from the cake’s center — has been making the rounds on the Internet this week with largely positive reception.
Galton’s primary objection to the wedge was that if you eat your cake over several days, you’re exposing precious cake innards to the air, drying the surface out. Clearly, Galton had eaten too many slices of suboptimal, day-old cake and was thus inspired to solve the problem.
More: Sir Francis Galton’s Scientific Priniciple of Cutting Cake : The Salt : NPR