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by Joshua A. Taton, Ph.D. | November 16, 2023 | 1 min read

One of my most popular LinkedIn posts recently involved a flip comment-turned-question that became mathematized. The question was: "Why do grilled cheese sandwiches, cut in half diagonally, taste so much better than grilled cheese sandwiches cut otherwise?"

I posed the question as "an essential math question of the day," so perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised when responses were, in fact, surprisingly mathematical!

Commenters noted that—by cutting them diagonally—more cheese is exposed to the air (and to our vision!). The neurological connection between sight, smell, and taste might therefore explain my hypothesis.

One commenter simply noted "Pythagorean Theorem." I never found out whether this meant that the commenter believed:

• As above, the longest side of a right triangle offers more cheese

• The Pythagorean Theorem itself is cheesy

• The Pythagorean Theorem is gooey, meaning it offers a lot of good conceptual and mathematical residue

• Something else?

What do you think?

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