Brain Teasers

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Pizza in the Time of Cholera

Category:	Logic
Submitted By:	JimShorts
Fun:	(2.74)
Difficulty:	(1.27)

I brought my lunch to work with me today: two square slices of pizza sealed in one small square Tupperware container. The slices just barely fit in the container, stacked one on top of the other. I want to microwave them both at the same time (because I'm lazy), but if the cheese side of either slice is touching the other slice of pizza, or the inner surface of the container, then the cheese will get stuck to whatever it's touching when it melts. And the crust is pretty soft, so the pizza slices will flop over and be ruined if I don't lay them flat.

The problem is, everyone else at work is horribly sick, so I don't trust ANYthing to be clean enough to touch my food except the inside of my container, since it has been sealed all day. No plates, no paper towels, not the inside of the microwave, NOTHING! So how can I safely microwave both slices of pizza at the same time without letting the cheese touch anything, and without letting any part of the pizza touch any surface that might be contaminated?

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Comments on this teaser


Posted by incredibotsmast	06/07/12
Very clever. Never thought of that.

Posted by Gwendalla	06/11/12
That was very well-thought out! I loved the "voice" of it. Specifically so when you listed the "contaminated" surfaces you didn't trust to put your pizza on. The solution was also smart. I kind of skimmed the bit that it was in a tupperware container, which happened to be the key to the whole thing... Anyhow, thanks for writing!!! :D

Posted by Candi7	06/12/12
OOOOHHHH, I was thinking stand them up on their edges inside the container, but then I realized they would flop over because the walls of th container weren't tall enough for them to lean against. But anyway, very creative and clever teaser!

Posted by Aprilasb	06/24/12
That was a no-brainer...but I'll definitely use it for my friends,to see how they think.

Posted by spikethru4	11/28/12
Flip the top slice over and eat it as a calzone?

Posted by chessgenius	01/18/13
Wow, i got this one..... Loved the presentation, especially "i am lazy" part. Lol

Posted by trewq	02/21/13
Nice job! I like the real-life aspect, although it was kind of easy. I can just picture some guy at the office doing this...was it a red tupperware?

Posted by macks2008	05/25/13
I like that you talked like this was really happening as you wrote it. It took me a minute or two to figure out, but I got it on my first try so not really difficult but definitely fun... Fun:3/3, diff:(1/3)