Mr. Gschwind's Math Classroom

The following is a nice letter I received from a parent about our geometry and ordering pizza assignment:

Mr. Gschwind,

Last night, my daughter explained her homework assignment to me.  She said she was asked to have a pizza cut so that the central angle was 72 degrees.  I asked her if she knew how many even pieces that would make and she quickly replied "Five!"  I asked her how she knew and she explained to me that since all circles include 360 degrees, that 360 degrees divided by 72 degrees was exactly five.

We called Rosati's pizza and ordered enough pizza for the family, including a small pizza which we asked to be cut into even pieces with an angle of 72 degrees between the sides starting at the center.  With the background noise in the store, the girl had a hard time understanding our request , so we explained it in detail.  After going through the examples of 90 degrees (4 pieces) and 60 degrees (6 pieces), she understood the request and entered the order for the pizza to be cut into 5 even pieces for this special assignment.

The pizza arrived in about 45 minutes.  I separated the slices so she could see them and we took her picture next to the 5 somewhat even slices.  She was a little embarrassed and I'm sure the people at Rosati's were confused, but they'll all remember the assignment.