A Supremely Cheesy World Record

Why would someone make a pizza with 156 ingredients? To set a world record, of course! A chef in Australia combined 154 different kinds of cheese with sauce and crust. The pizza was a normal size, so he could only sprinkle 1 gram of each cheese on the sauce, but that still adds up to about 1/3 pound. Maybe that’s why it was so popular – the restaurant sold all 797 of its 154-cheese pies in just 5 days! 

Wee ones: What shape is the pizza in the picture? See if you can find 3 things in the room that are that same shape. Do you think they’re bigger or smaller than that pizza?

Little kids: If 1 of those pizzas is cut into 8 slices, what numbers do you say to count down from 8 as everyone eats them? Bonus: If you get the 154-cheese pizza and a friend gets a normal pizza with 1 different type of cheese, how many types of cheese are on your table?

Big kids: The previous record was 111 cheeses on 1 pizza. How many more cheeses are in the 154-cheese pie? (Hint: What if you were comparing just 54 cheeses to 11 cheeses?) Bonus: If it took 3 hours of planning to invent this pie, but takes only 10 minutes to make one now that there’s a recipe, can the chef make 20 pies in the amount of time it took to plan?

The sky’s the limit: If you eat 1/2 of a pizza, then eat 1/3 of what’s left, then eat 1/4 of what’s left after that, how much pizza did you eat?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Answers:

Wee ones: The pizza is a circle. Circles in your room might include buttons, the edge of a plate or cup, the face of a clock, or a smiley face on paper. Those things are all smaller than that pizza…see if you can find something bigger!

Little kids: 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!  Bonus: 155 cheeses, because 154 + 1 = 155.

Big kids: The 154-cheese pie has 43 more cheeses than the old record. Bonus: Not quite – the chef can make 6 pies per hour, which is the same as making 18 in the 3 hours it took to plan. Another way to solve it: 3 hours x 60 minutes each = 180 minutes to plan, while it would take 20 x 10 = 200 minutes to make the pies.

The sky’s the limit: You eat 3/4 of the pie. After eating the half, you eat 1/3 of the other half, which comes to 1/3 x 1/2 = 1/6. The piece that’s left is now 2/6, or 1/3, of the original. Eating 1/4 of that comes to 1/4 x 1/3 = 1/12. Taking that 1/12 out of the 1/3 is like taking 1/12 out of 4/12, leaving behind 3/12 of the pie, or ¼. If 1/4 is left, you must have eaten 3/4! You can also add up what you ate: 1/2 + 1/6 + 1/12. That’s the same as 6/12 + 2/12 + 1/12 = 9/12, which = 3/4.

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