Buzz
In most cases, more pizza is always a win, and this holds especially true for a Super Bowl Party. Get ready for some exciting news about your upcoming (safe and socially distanced) celebration of the big game between the Chiefs and Buccaneers.
If anyone tries to talk you out of ordering multiple large pizzas, don’t listen: It’s nearly always a better deal to go with the larger size, according to the math (or rather, an engineer’s perspective). Here’s why.
It’s all about the numbers
In 2014, Quoctrung Bui shared an explanation on NPR’s Planet Money blog:
Last year, an engineer and I stopped by a pizza joint for lunch. He told me he wasn’t very hungry but planned to order the 12-inch medium instead of the 8-inch small because the medium was more than twice the size of the small, and the price difference was minimal. This really caught me off guard.
...The reason why larger pizzas are such a good deal is straightforward: A pizza is a circle, and the area of a circle grows with the square of its radius.
For instance, a 16-inch pizza is actually four times the size of an 8-inch pizza.
And when analyzing thousands of pizza prices across the U.S., it's clear that you almost always get a significantly better value with a larger pizza.
The post also features an interactive graph that compares the average pizza prices from pizzerias and chains nationwide. You can drag the slider at the bottom of the graph to see just how much larger that bigger pizza is compared to the smaller ones, and at the average prices for each, how much more you actually get for your money.
The pizza diameter tool relies on fairly old data, but the general rule still applies for Super Bowl 2021 and beyond: Bigger pizzas offer more value for your money. For instance, one 18-inch pizza has the same area as 1.7 14-inch pizzas or 5.1 8-inch pizzas. To match the quantity of pizza in an $18.68 18-inch pizza, you'd need to spend an additional $5.29 on 14-inch pizzas or $23.09 on 8-inch pizzas. See how the numbers work out?
It’s almost always a better deal—mathematically, that is—to simply go for the larger pizza. While this example might cost a bit more today, the principle remains the same.
This is, of course, a mathematical exercise—a rational, logical approach to maximizing your pizza investment. It’s clear that buying a giant pizza doesn’t make sense if you can’t finish it, want to avoid overeating, lack the funds for the larger size, or have no way to store leftovers. But for all other situations—especially the Super Bowl, arguably the most universally celebrated national day of pizza enjoyment—go for the larger pizza.
