Mathematics key to eating pizzas

Aficionados who adeptly fold their pizza slices into a U by pressing the crusty broader end between thumb and forefinger to take their first bite of the resultant pointed tip probably have no idea that they owe their skills to the Theorema Egregium formulated by a 19th-century German mathematician CF Gauss rather than a Neapolitan nonna's accumulated wisdom.

Experts will confirm that this is indeed the only way to devour a slice of 'authentic' thin-crust Italian pizza — even if topped with desi spicy paneer and aaloo — without the contents flopping or dribbling over onto tables or laptops. Of course, such prognostications are irrelevant if the pizza happens to be a sturdier variant, such as the paprizza, reportedly invented recently by a Delhi chef for a vegetarian wedding abroad using papri of chaat fame.

But most pizzas remain resolutely floppy, so the assertion that flat surfaces even when curved subsequently will retain at least one plane without curvature at any given point has potential beyond obvious cartographical applications. Indeed, using that principle to ensure that a pizza triangle makes the journey from platter to mouth intact is brilliant. And to think that people with not the slightest mathematical bent of mind use it to similar effect with paranthas and rotis with nary a thought!