Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Geometry of pie













Modular pie-cosahedron

This is pie.

Specifically, it's a pecan pie with the topology of a sphere, made up of 20 triangular sub-pies.

The baker/architect, a professor of computer science at UC Irvine, made isoceles-triangle-shaped pie pans out of sheet metal, then connected them with extra-strong magnets. He reports "surprisingly little slump" during serving.

Beautiful AND edible!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What keeps the filling in each pan when none of them is resting flat? Mine would all slide out.
Annie

Lisa M. Orange said...

The chef/engineer does mention that he "added 1.5 tablespoons of flour to help guarantee the pies weren't overly runny." Now, he also says that he multiplied the recipe on the back of the Karo syrup bottle by 20, so it's not clear if he meant 1.5 tablespoons of flour per pie or total -- probably per pie? He also wrapped the pies in plastic wrap during assembly. But he claims that the pies held up during serving: "The layer of pecans and crystallized sugar did well to hold in the gooey interior," he says.