1. SHARING PIZZA
You are going to eat pizza with your friends. When you arrive you see that the restaurant has set
up one large table that seats 10 people, and a small table that seats 8 people. The server places
four pizzas on the large table and three pizzas on the small table. At each table, everyone shares
the pizzas equally. Which table should you sit at if you are really hungry and want to eat as much
pizza as possible?
Solve in two different ways using reasoning. At least one solution should use a diagram. Explain
your reasoning for each solution.
Melissa said she found a “cool” way to solve the pizza problem without doing any calculating. She
© 2008, University of Michigan
Adapted from Comparing and Scaling, Connected Mathematics Project, Prentice Hall

2. used a diagram as shown below. Does her strategy work? Is it mathematically sound? If so, why?
If not, why not?
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Use Melissa’s strategy as a way to begin solving the pizza problem. Build on Melissa’s strategy to
determine the table with the most pizza for each person.
© 2008, University of Michigan
Adapted from Comparing and Scaling, Connected Mathematics Project, Prentice Hall