Can you "do" Maths?

[BrilloPad]

But possibly much more intelligent.

definetly

And at least the posters here are at the other end of the internet - they can't stab you. <insert obvious joke here>

[sasguru]

Are the government dumbing down that far?

[Chantho]

Plus, it's very useful in daily life! Last week having dinner a friend of mine worked out that you got almost 25% more pie in a square pie than a round one at a restaurant

27.323954473516268615107010698011 % (OK I used a calculator) or

[100 * (4 - pie )] / pie

if you prefer

<edit> IGMC </edit>

[TimberWolf]

Plus, it's very useful in daily life! Last week having dinner a friend of mine worked out that you got almost 25% more pie in a square pie than a round one at a restaurant

27.323954473516268615107010698011 % (OK I used a calculator) or

[100 * (4 - pie )] / pie

if you prefer

Only if you have a plate like this:
http://www.aph.com.au/Images/Crockery/SquarePlates.jpg

[BrilloPad]

Plus, it's very useful in daily life! Last week having dinner a friend of mine worked out that you got almost 25% more pie in a square pie than a round one at a restaurant

27.323954473516268615107010698011 % (OK I used a calculator) or

[100 * (4 - pie )] / pie

if you prefer

That must have been a fun dinner.

[Pondlife]

Plus, it's very useful in daily life! Last week having dinner a friend of mine worked out that you got almost 25% more pie in a square pie than a round one at a restaurant

27.323954473516268615107010698011 % (OK I used a calculator) or

[100 * (4 - pie )] / pie

if you prefer

Your taxi is outside... do you have a ticket for your coat?

[Chantho]

Your taxi is outside... do you have a ticket for your coat?

Thanks for pointing out the obvious omission from my post, I'll correct it now.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

definetly

And at least the posters here are at the other end of the internet - they can't stab you. <insert obvious joke here>

Definitely

The BBC article claims no-one would brag about not being able to read, but plenty of people are vicious and defensive about their terrible spelling and grammar. Maths isn't my strong point - I'm not proud of that and I try to do better, and if someone points out an error I don't respond by telling them to "get a life" or some similar vacuous expression.

[dude69]

Plus, it's very useful in daily life! Last week having dinner a friend of mine worked out that you got almost 25% more pie in a square pie than a round one at a restaurant

It's likely to have been MORE than 25% more.

If you have a choice between an x"-diameter circular pie pie and a x"-wide square pie, then it is x^2 * pi/4 or x^2

4/pi is then 1.273

27% bigger in fact...

[TimberWolf]

It's likely to have been MORE than 25% more.

If you have a choice between an x"-diameter circular pie pie and a x"-wide square pie, then it is x^2 * pi/4 or x^2

4/pi is then 1.273

27% bigger in fact...

Nope. The largest round pizza you can fit on a round plate is a round pizza. No maths required. The same would be true for a square plate, where a square pizza would be the largest you could fit on it. I think it unlikely that she had a square plate.

The most likely scenario is that she had a round plate and a choice of either a square pizza or a round one, and incorrectly calculated that she would get a bigger pizza if she chose a square pizza, ignoring the fact that 27% of it wouldn't fit on the plate. To fit on the plate a square pizza would only be 2/pi times (or 64%) the area of the round one.