Ummm, taking into account the crust comes to mind as a good idea, though in this case it probably wouldn't matter.

Also, more food is not the ideal situation for most people.

They say the geeks shall inherit the earth.

You know, like nunchuck skills, bowhunting skills, geometry skills... Waitresses only give extra 8" pizzas to customers who have great skills.

Too bad this doesn't ake into count the quality/quantity of toppings. Not to mention the hearty goodness of a deep dish!

Pizza pie 4 R squares!

Why does it look like the sauce is on top of the cheese in the photo?

@Rey: Ha!

@Rectilinear Propagation: That is the magic of Giordano's Pizza. BEST PIZZA EVAR. (great pic choice, btw)

That picture makes me REALLY hungry!

And the reason is because that's how some places (areas) make their pizza...Strange but true!

It's Chicago pizza! It's not strange!

Um, how about I pick my pizza based on how tasty it is?

@junkmail:

I have to agree. I had it for the rest time in December. Fantastic pizza. You can also make several meals out of that one huge pizza.

Thin crust rules!!!

Getting a free pizza because of geometry skills is about as likely as hearing, "Take my virginity, Algebra Boy!"

Sure nice thought to keep the boys focused and in school. But. No.

@getjustin: It's about choosing between 2 8" or 1 12" pizza at a single location, though. Unless you have reason to believe that the 8" and 12" pizzas don't actually taste the same, it becomes purely a value call.

Better living through mathematics!

@yasth:

What you said about the crust ratio.

Two smaller pizzas = higher percentage of crust area to flat-part-with-all-the-goodies-on-it. Unless you love eating the crust more than the toppings, it would be better to get one larger pie with half one topping, half the other.

Kudos for spotting that. Most people seem to mistakenly believe a 16" pizza is twice the size of an 8" pizza.

I've been reviewing pizzas for several years, and have been applying the square inch measure in an effort to fairly assess the relative expensiveness of restaurants. That, of course, cannot account for the relative quality (read: taste) of the restaurants, but there's also a problem with using that technique for choosing between two pizzas in the same restaurants.

The square area jumps dramatically with each 2" increment (8"=50sq", 10"=79sq", 12"=113sq", 14"=154sq", 16"=201sq" (all approx)) leading to a 16" pizza being over 4 times the area of a single 8" pizza.

Almost certainly, you will never find a restaurant that charges 4 times as much for the 16" than the 8", so the larger pizzas are almost always the "better deal."

The problem is there's also a corresponding drop in the doneness of the pizza at most pizzerias (not all, of course.)

Four 8" pizzas will almost certainly be better cooked than one 16" pizza. It's not a popular notion with the bean counters or the people who think there's fun to be had sharing a pizza, but if you're in it for the flavor, go with the small.

I hope they saved all their extra pizza for another meal -- otherwise they should have factored in the additional health care costs...

personally, i think the best deal is calculated based on personal tastes that cannot be figured with geometry equations. i would much rather spend $8 on a few slices of grandmas from calamari's in bay ridge than on a pie from domino's. you're definitely getting more pizza taking your bucks to the dots, but the satisfaction cannot compare.

& on that note, i think i will be leaving work early for a little trip to brooklyn.

@junkmail:

yes, and in the case of Chicago style pizza, you've gotta take depth into consideration - this is no two-dimensional object! There's pizza, and then there's Chicago pizza.

Pardon my drool.....,,,,

You have no idea how much that picture makes me miss Chicago! And how hungry it makes me...

I worked at a pizza place for 5 years and this was very difficult for my customers to understand when they wanted to know what sizes were the best deal (which happened very often!!). You don't need to worry about anything but the radius squared.

One regular didn't trust my math so he actually brought his laptop in one night and made an Excel spreadsheet to figure out the surface areas. All it takes is about 5 seconds of 8th grade math in your head!!

Only works if quality was equal to quantity. Personally I go after taste.

MMMmmm....... Pi..........

wouldn't it just be easier to compare them by weight?

@joeblevins:

Why? Because you have to eat more of it to get full? I'll take a 1" thick deep dish pizza over some skinny-ass thin crust pizza any day.

@Tallanvor:

If you live in Florida, you can still get it:
http://www.giordanos.com/locations.php

You can also mail-order it but I'm not sure how well that works:
http://www.giordanos.com/shop/home.php?cat=1

Stick with a medium for Chicago stuffed pizza. The large stuffed pizzas tend to be undercooked in the middle.

I second the "Why not just compare them by weight?". Surface area is less accurate and not even printed on the packaging.

w00t for Giordano's!

@tubgnome et al:
I don't think they're talking about frozen pizzas (which you can easily compare by weight), rather, this is purely a "You're at a restaurant and want to know how the different sizes of the same style of pizza compare price-wise."

@mopar_man: Thanks! I was just wondering if I could order Giordano's to be sent to me.

@Squeezer99: Are you going to ask the person selling you the pizza to go to the back, weigh two 8" pizzas vs. one 12" pizza, subtract the difference, and tell them to come back and give you the results?

I have nothing to add to this, except that giordino's is the best slice of pie outside of NYC

oh, and that it seemed insanely cheap for what you get

@mopar_man: Definitely, I can usually do a piece and a half, then the rest is taken home for midnight munchies. It amazes me how they cram such an extraordinary amount of food into such a small space... I'm pretty sure they're violating a few laws of physics somewhere...

Thanks for the link, btw, I didn't know you could have it shipped. Though it sucks that the selection is so limited. I guess another road trip is in order... w00t!!11

@thrillhouse: Agreed. :D

FYI, Just placed an order for two pies. Total was $73 with next day shipping, (yikes!!!1). They should arrive Thursday, so I'll let you guys know how it goes, (if anyone cares).

@mopar_man: Alas, I'm in London, so no pizza shipments for me!

For anyone who hasn't had real Chicago style deep dish, it's worth the price they're charging!

What about cost to generate a cost per inch? I have not do such cost per inch of pizza cals but have done cost per oz... Sometime there is a disproportionate cost per unit.

For those ever in the Champaign/Urbana area, stop by the Papa Del's Pizza. Not too unlike the Giordano's but I prefer them, personally.

News flash: Adult remembers basic grade-school geometry. Film at 11.

Ha, that reminds me of a funny story. The other day I was at the shop and the had two different sizes of a product at different prices, so I used rudimentary maths skills I learnt in Primary school to calculate which had the better deal, and I bought that one.

Seriously, I thought that everybody had done this. The only advantage would be if you want more toppings.

Honestly, my stomach doesnt care how much surface area is in a pizza. I would have to go by weight of the product. Give me a sphere of pizza that weighs more and will cook right and I will be happy.

So in other words, this is the formula for...*drumroll*...

Pizza Pi?

Thank you, thank you, I'll be here for the next 5 minutes.

A Round Table Pizza 12" has 8oz of cheese and an 8" has 5.5oz of cheese. So even though two 8" will have less surface area you are going to get more cheese than the single 12", and the same is probably true for all the other toppings. The toppings are obviously the more valuable portion of the pizza, and thus although the customer in question is good at geometry, he sucks at life.