考研英语阅读篇章: 切蛋糕的最佳方式
新东方在线小编为大家整理考研英语阅读系列篇章精选，通过双语阅读的方式，帮助同学们捕捉国内外新闻以及最前沿的奇人异事。考生可作为备考资料，阅读的同时将不熟的单词牢记。考研英语阅读篇章：切蛋糕的最佳方式
伦敦一名数学家在YouTube视频中展示了最佳的切蛋糕方式。您别说，还真有那么点道理。
Forget everything you know about cake cutting; this new method could turn
the seemingly straight-forward practice on its head.
Although, using the word 'new' isn't accurate, because the method is
actually a 100-year-old trick unearthed(发掘，破获) by London-based author and
mathematician Alex Bellos.
In his latest YouTube video, Bellos describes how taking wedges out of
cakes leaves them susceptible to drying - and we should instead be cutting them
in lines so the whole cake can be sealed and stored.
Known on YouTube as Numberphile, Bellos first explained the problems with
modern methods of cutting cakes.
Namely, he said that if a wedge(楔子) is taken out of a cake but the rest of
the food is then stored in the fridge, the edges of the cake open to the air
will be 'dry and horrible', Bellos says.
'You're not maximising the amount of gastronomic(烹饪学的) pleasure that you
can make from this cake.'
There is instead, he explained, a better way of cutting cakes that dates
back more than a century.
The method was first published in Nature on 20 December 1906 in the letters
to the editor section by English mathematical scientist Francis Galton.
Titled 'Cutting a round cake on scientific principles', Galton's letter
explained how the 'ordinary method of cutting out a wedge is very faulty'.
He went on to state the cake should be cut in parallel lines, starting in
the centre, with the rectangular segments of the cake then taken out and
eaten.
This would allow the cake to then be closed, provided it is one with icing,
keep the sponge inside sealed and retaining its freshness.
'Christmas suggests cakes, and the wish on my part to describe a
method of cutting them that I have recently devised to my own amusement and
satisfaction.
'The problem to be solved was, "given a round tea-cake of some 5 inches
across, and two persons of moderate appetite to eat it, in what way should it be
cut so as to leave a minimum of exposed surface to become dry?"
'The ordinary method of cutting out a wedge is very faulty in this respect.
The results to be aimed at are so to cut the cake that the remaining portions
shall fit together.
'Consequently the chords (or the arcs) of the circumferences of these
portions must be equal.
'The direction of the first two vertical planes of section is unimportant;
they may be parallel, as in the first figure, or they may enclose a wedge.
'The cuts shown on the figures represent those made with the intention of
letting the cake last for three days, each successive operation having removed
about one-third of the area of the original disc.
'A common india-rubber band embraces the whole and keeps its segments
together.'
It is also recommended an elastic band is used to hold the cake together
and keep it sealed.
'I don't know if you've thought about it before but these triangular slices
are really annoying anyway because it's not very satisfying,' Bellos added.
In reference to the new method he said having 'a nice uniform slice like
that is a lot better.'
But, he concluded, most people choose to share their cakes rather than
eating it themselves, meaning not much or any of it is often stored.
'I think for the mathematical loners who don't want to share their cakes it
could be useful,' he joked.
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