# Happy pi day, everyone!

A baker is working a batch of dough. He shapes it into a cylinder of height a and radius z.

What will the baker make from this volume of dough?

• Title must be "Hap'pi day everyone" :) – val Mar 14 at 20:29

He will make

pizza.

The volume is

Height times pi times the square of the radius, i.e. $$pi * z * z * a$$.

• Wow that was quick! Well done. I will award the tick at the end of the day. – Stewart Becker Mar 14 at 12:05
• either that or pizaz! – samerivertwice Mar 15 at 15:31

Old joke - he's making pizza: pi * z * z * a

• Got ninja'd again?! >:( – Mr Pie Apr 16 at 21:36
• @user477343 - Meh. Can't help it if there are people who can type faster than me... :) – Jeff Zeitlin Apr 17 at 11:57
• Well, I don't think it's fair: it's about how fast you get the answer, not how fast you can type the answer... but since it's online, what can you do? Hence, it's unfair. So you know what I do for those who get ninja'd? ;) – Mr Pie Apr 17 at 14:16
• @user477343 gonna wait and post my answer a few seconds late in the future just so that you give me a bounty ;P – Brandon_J Apr 23 at 18:29
• @Brandon_J Hahaha, well that may work ;) – Mr Pie Apr 23 at 21:11

While I agree with Jeff's answer, it also depends on the actual height and radius used.

If a > 1" (perhaps even 1/2" because dough rises with yeast assuming a typical pizza batter), the pizza will be way too thick to resemble pizza. Typically crusts (before baking) are way less than a < 1/2", though I've never tried a thick-pan crust.
Also if z < 3", the pizza will be far too small to be a realistic pizza. (Mini-pizzas at z = 2"?)

But given realistic values of a and z, I certainly agree with Jeff's answer.

Happy pi day.

• Even with a big tall cylinder of dough, he'll still make pizza because that will be the volume he'll make. – samerivertwice Mar 15 at 15:33

Volume $$V$$ of a cylinder of given height $$h$$ and radius $$r$$ is given by $$V = \pi r^2 h$$.

Therefore,

the volume of said object is $$\pi z^2 a$$. But since today is pi day, I assume the correct answer is pizza.

:)