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The Perfect Way To Slice a Pizza 282

iamapizza writes "New Scientist reports on the quest of two math boffins for the perfect way to slice a pizza. It's an interesting and in-depth article; 'The problem that bothered them was this. Suppose the harried waiter cuts the pizza off-center, but with all the edge-to-edge cuts crossing at a single point, and with the same angle between adjacent cuts. The off-center cuts mean the slices will not all be the same size, so if two people take turns to take neighboring slices, will they get equal shares by the time they have gone right round the pizza — and if not, who will get more?' This is useful, of course, if you're familiar with the concept of 'sharing' a pizza."

Comment Re:Really? (Score 1) 145

I'm greatly looking forward to seeing your solution for keeping vital components at acceptable temperatures without any power.

polonium-210?

Actually, Plutonium 239. The Mars Science Lab uses a General Purpose Heat Source (a radioisotope brick) to both generate power using thermoelectrics, and as a source of heat during the martian night. A pumped fluid loop is used to cool the electronics during the day, and heat them at night.

When heating is needed, some of the fluid is diverted to two hot plates around the general purpose heat source.

A nice overview is "Mars Science Laboratory Thermal Control Architecture" which can be found at:
http://marstech.jpl.nasa.gov/publications/Bhandari -final-paper-2005-01-28.pdf

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