EMT 725
Philippa M. Rhodes
What is the maximum number of pieces into which a pie can be sliced with n straight cuts?
The objective when trying to make the straight cuts to obtain the most possible pieces is to cross the previous cuts. For example, when I make cut # 3, I try to cross cuts #1 and #2.
Since we have let n = the number of cuts, we can see that the number of pieces is the sum of the first n integers plus 1. Therefore, a formula that will allow us to determine the maximum number of pieces into which a pie can be sliced with n cuts is:
