Purpose

Its really difficult to figure out which pizzeria has the best deal. The most accurate approach is to buy every pizza in town, dismantle them, and compare their relative masses. Although this approach might appeal to nerds, it's just not feasible. A more reasonable approach is to calculate the surface area of toppings by using the Functional Square Inch (FSI) calculation. By systematically comparing this number across Conway pizzerias, and will ultimately expose the best and shadiest pizzeria practices.

What to document

• Document the functional radius (radius minus crust length) of each pizza you eat. Using these figures, we can create descriptive statistics of the Functional Square Inches of a pizza pie. For the moment, its sufficient to calculate the mean (sum of all observations / (number of observations), but if this page gets used, we can start calculating standard deviation. Place the most recent mean in the FSI table of the pizza page.
• Also document the day , date, and time, next to the radius. Doing so allows us to look for patterns of fluctuation. e.g. whether places cheat you on Friday nights.

Measurement technique

• For normal pizzas, measure from where the toppings end on one edge of the pie to the corresponding part on the opposite pie part of the pie. The functional radius is that diameter divided by two. Its preferable that you not directly measure the radius on any particular slice— an unevenly cut slice could bias your measurement.

• For stuffed pizzas and folded crusts, you may only include the under-the-crust region as surface if it contains something other than sauce. That last point is very important. Here's why: on a 16" pie with a 1" crust, the FSI is 154. A 16" pie with a 2" folded over crust, filled with two cents worth of sauce, has an FSI of 113. Thats a 25% reduction in area!

  The above scheme invites the criticism that a folded crust has more food than than an unfolded crust. This is an untested assumption. A "more food" argument assumes that the crust density and mass is equated within and across pizzerias. The logistics of that one seem too difficult to test for your common wiki user.

Pizza places

Woodstock's Pizza Large: 5.5" (4-05), ... <<< example data!

The PVI (Pizza Value Index)

The PVI is an alternate index. It is simply pizza area/cost. Size (in inches) is taken from actual (vs. advertised) measurements and goes to the edge of the crust. Rectangular pizzas are calculated using (L*W/$). Cost is in dollars, excluding tax and gratuity (if any). Precision is 2-3 digits. Typical values are around 10. For auditing, the size and cost must be given, not just the PVI.

PVI=pi*r*r/cost

PVI=3.14*(inches dia/2)*(inches dia/2)/cost

PVI=dia*dia*.785/cost

Example: A 16.0" pizza costs $12.00. Compute 16*16*.785/12 yields 16.74666, round to 16.7

(sorted by descending PVI)

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