Yes, Virginia, there's a correct geek way to cut a cake. And, yes, Virginia, cutting cakes into triangles is oh, so wrong.

Leave it to geeks to again resurrect the intractable mathematical "problem" of how best to cut a cake so the cake remains moist and juicy when stored in the fridge.

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This is the conundrum facing man since the fridge came along: how to preserve a cut cake inside a fridge without the cake becoming dry and tasteless.

That problem arises because non-geek humans tend to slice cakes into wedges. This leaves one side of the remaining cake exposed to the coldness inside a fridge. The cold eventually dries out the moistness that makes a cake delicious.

The question now becomes "What's the right way to cut a cake?"

There's a hilarious YouTube video that answers this question at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBU9N35ZHIw.

In the video, British author Alex Bellos, who writes a lot about mathematics, said we're "not maximizing the amount of gastronomic pleasure" by cutting our cakes into wedges.

He described the classic way of cutting cakes into wedges as "the bad way." This also makes the cake also look like a pie chart.

There is, however, "a better way, a way that is more than a hundred years old and was discovered or invented by one of Britain's most famous mathematical scientists."

That mathematician was Francis Galton, who in 1906, published a story called "Cutting a round cake on scientific principles."

Galton wrote that "The ordinary method of cutting out a wedge is very faulty . . . ."

The correct, mathematical way is to first slice the cake in two along its center. A second slice parallel to the first slice must then be made.

Serve these rectangular slices to your guests, or eat them yourself.

Keep slicing parallel to each slice, making certain you slice on alternating sides. What you'll be left with following this "correct and scientific" method is a cake that still looks round (if it's a round cake) or rectangular (if it's a rectangular cake).

You can push together the halves of the leftover cake before you place the cake in the fridge. Pushing the halves of the leftover cake together will ensure the moisture inside the cake is shielded from the drying effects of the cold air inside the fridge.

And that, my friends, is the correct mathematical way to cut your cake-and preserve it, too.

TagsHow to cut a cake, Geek way to cut a cake, Correct way to cut a cake