PUNKIN PI-R-SQUARED
Our friends Punkin Pi, R2, and JR are back again! See if you can follow them through their
adventure!
Once again Punkin Pi and R2 had stomachs grumbling for food, and once
again they wanted pizza. But they remembered they had overdone it the last time
so they decided to get one round pizza and split it. True to his nature, JR showed
up about that time.
Since there were three of them, they decided on a large 16 inch round pizza, but they didn’t all like the
same toppings. After much discussion they got sausage and pepperoni on the whole pizza, with banana
peppers on one half for Pi, and onions on the other half for R2. JR would eat anything.
By the time the pizza came the three friends were famished (very hungry)! It didn’t take them long to
eradicate (get rid of) the whole thing. This time, though, R2 was paying attention to who ate what and
how much.
When the pizza was all gone R2 pulled out paper and pencil from a secret pocket under his left wing and
started writing. He had questions. This is what he wrote:
Total 12 pieces. 6 pieces with banana pepper and 6 pieces with onion. Pi ate 4 pieces of his half with
banana peppers. R2 ate 3 pieces of his half with onions. JR ate 2 pieces with peppers and 3 pieces with
onions for a total of 5 pieces of pizza.
“Okay, JR, how do we figure out how much we ate this time?” asked R2. “Is it still length times
width? How do you do that with a round pizza?” He drew a circle with a square around it. “That
can’t be right because this pizza had no corners! They cheated us! We didn’t get any corners!”
Before he started causing trouble, JR calmed him down.
“We were not cheated. The area of a circle is not figured the same as a square or rectangle. It’s a little
more complicated than squares and rectangle. Let’s save that for another time, and instead, do
something else with fractions like we did before.”
The others replied with groans of “Oh no, not fractions!”
“Yes, fractions. Come on, it’s not that hard. Watch carefully and think it through and you’ll find out how
easy it can be,” insisted JR. “And don’t be afraid to ask questions!”
Here’s your pizza,” said JR as he drew a circle. “How many pieces were there in total?”
“Twelve,” replied Pi. “Half of it was banana peppers!”
“How many pieces was that?” asked JR.
“Six,” answered Pi.
“The other half had onions on it,” said R2, “and that was 6 pieces also.”
JR wrote:
6/12 = half peppers
6/12 = half onions
“Why is the bottom number 12?” asked R2. “Is it because there were 12 pieces in total?”
“That’s correct,” answered JR.
“So if there had been only 8 pieces instead of 12, the bottom number would be 8?”
“Right again! What do the top numbers represent in each of the fractions?”
“I think they represent the number of pieces we’re talking about,” said Pi. “Like in the beginning we
were talking about how many pieces were banana peppers and how many were onions. There were 6
pieces of each, so that is where we got 6/12. How much did each of us eat?” she wanted to know.
“I was watching,” said R2. “Pi ate 4 pieces and I ate 3. JR, you ate the other 5.”
“Right,” said JR. “How would you write a fraction showing how many pieces we each ate?”
“If the top number is how many pieces I had, then mine
would be 4/12,” answered Pi.
“And if I ate 3 pieces, would that be 3/12,” replied R2.
“That’s right,” answered JR. “So how much did I eat?”
R2 piped up, “You ate 5 pieces, so that would be 5/12. But
you ate half of my side!”
“How’d you figure that?” grinned JR.
“Well, there were 6 pieces of onion pizza and you had 3. So that means you had 3/6 of the onion side.
Isn’t 3 half of 6?”asked R2.
“Oh, I get it!” injected Pi. JR had 2 pieces of the pepper side, so that means he had 2/6 of the pieces with
banana peppers.”
“And he had 5 pieces total which would be 5/12. So does that means 2/6 +
3/6 = 5/12?” wondered R2. That doesn’t make sense.”
“Actually you’re right R2,” said JR, “but let’s save adding fractions for another
time.”
The other two friends agreed. They wondered if JR’s mom had made cookies
and decided to go find out.