So in a few hours, i will be eating lunch and i've already thought on what to buy. There is this chinese take away shop that has an offer of rice plus any 2 choices of meat. Basically, they give you a plate (small or large, depending on your choice) that you pay for and then you just add rice and 2 types of meat of your choice.

The thing is, there is no limit as to how much you put on your plate, so long as its the plate that you bought and not something you brought along. And since TL is full of uni students studying something with strong level of math, i'd like to ask how i can maximise the amount of food that i can put on my plate without the food falling out of my plate.

Normally, i just buy the large plate, put a decent amount and it makes me full. But im short on change so i have to settle with the small one.

Silidons

United States2813 Posts

December 30 2011 02:57 GMT

1) look at food choices
2) decide which food you want
3) pile food on plate
4) ???????
5) Profit!

I'm not sure how you came up with this in your head. Are you asking about how to arrange your food on the plate? lol?

User was warned for this post

sharky246

1197 Posts

December 30 2011 03:08 GMT

On December 30 2011 11:57 Silidons wrote:
1) look at food choices
2) decide which food you want
3) pile food on plate
4) ???????
5) Profit!

I'm not sure how you came up with this in your head. Are you asking about how to arrange your food on the plate? lol?

Im sure there is a certain way of piling food on plate which will allow me to get more on my plate than piling it like what most people do.

ZaphoD[42]

Germany16 Posts

December 30 2011 03:17 GMT

Just put the big stuff first on the plate and fill the holes with smaller food.
At the end you should have build a pyramide looking like that:
...... _
...-----------
-B-B-B-B-B
BBB-BB-B-B

Science rules!

n.DieJokes

United States3443 Posts

December 30 2011 03:26 GMT

Smash each pellet of rice into a sphere, stack hexagonally http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphere_packing
....
This is the only result I know about packing mathematically. If you just want good advice, press the rice down on your plate so it sticks better and you can fit more; then push the meat into the rice. Then rice on top and pack down, each layer decreasing in radius till it resembles a sphere.

warblob004

United States198 Posts

December 30 2011 03:40 GMT

Hahahaha I love the fun math tricks. To stack the meat in first and pack with rice, or to pack rice and then stuff the meat in?

waxypants

United States479 Posts

December 30 2011 03:43 GMT

I thought this was going to be about calculating the $ per sq. inch of pizza when trying to decide whether the two mediums or xlarge is a better deal.

Silidons

United States2813 Posts

December 30 2011 03:53 GMT

yeah i mean the way that i thought you could do also is create a sort of half sphere on the sides with the meat around the edges and put the rice in the middle

like this
....... M
..... MRRM
....MRRRRM
. MRRRRRM

unichan

United States4223 Posts

December 30 2011 04:04 GMT

what the hell lol

brachester

Australia1786 Posts

December 30 2011 04:22 GMT

#10

uhhmmmm, what is this?

Froadac

United States6733 Posts

December 30 2011 04:42 GMT

#11

You see, it's quite obvious.

By utilizing the integral of meat, and adding the integral of rice, and utilizing the coefficients of friction of rice and meat you should be able to calculate an optimal allotment such that the hexagonal structure is stable under pressure.

No man, just pile the meat on in a heap :D

endy

Switzerland8970 Posts

December 30 2011 05:12 GMT

#12

If the rice is sticky, use it as a wall.
Let's say this is your plate seen from top
First layer
...RRRRR
RMMMMMR
RMMMMMR
RMMMMMR
...RRRRRR

Second layer
...RRRRR
RRMMMRR
RMMMMMR
RRMMMRR
...RRRRRR

Third layer
...RRRRR
RRRMRRR
RRMMMRR
RRRMRRR
...RRRRRR

From there, once you have strong foundations you can pile the meat almost vertically.
If the rice sticks well you pack the whole stuff properly should be able to get a nice tower.

Pro-tip : don't put too much sauce if there is, it contributes to unstick the rice. Instead, ask for a little cup and put the sauce in there.

HaruHaru

United States988 Posts

December 30 2011 05:52 GMT

#13

This is what I usually do at a mongolian barbeque place that lets you put as much food as you can in a bowl. First, surround the other edge of the plage with something like brocolli with the flower part sticking out. The flowery edge will contain food inside and keep food from spilling out. Then start to pile the bottom with stuff that can be compressed, like some vegetables or what not in a circle. put a ton of meat and flat stuff in the middle and pile that alll on top, but make sure the brocolli is keeping the food inside. then keep building higher and higher. The most important thing is to have no shame. Use your hands if you have to to make sure the food pile is stable and if there are people waiting for you behind you, ignore them and keep piling your dish.

rotinegg

United States1719 Posts

December 30 2011 06:02 GMT

#14

bring a blender and some of this, then blend everything into plate-sized patties and start stacking

or you could try this with a balloon or something:

Malgrif

Canada1095 Posts

December 30 2011 06:07 GMT

#15

just get a large cup or something and compress as much rice as you can into it. break the cup and voilia a tower of rice

Fishgle

United States2174 Posts

December 30 2011 08:07 GMT

#16

Rice is very fluffy. Squish it down, then add the meat. squish again. Stack in a spherical shape. smoosh it as much as possible.

igotmyown

United States4291 Posts

December 30 2011 08:48 GMT

#17

Not a real math problem, because you don't have rigid bodies.

It could be a material science problem, but you have to provide coefficients for how adhesive the substances are so you can predict when it would tend to fall over.

Cool Cat

United States1644 Posts

December 30 2011 09:17 GMT

#18

I think the best technique is simply just to compress the food as much as possible. At teppanyaki places quite often the meat is curled so that the meat takes up more space.

sharky246

1197 Posts

December 30 2011 12:27 GMT

#19

thanks alot for the tips guys. I went along with endy's idea. It worked, as in 100% worked. Normally you see alittle difference between the theoretical and practical results of math. But this worked exactly as planned. And people around me in the food court were looking at me or looking at the food tower (around 15~20cm height) with open eyes and mouth abit opened.

I guess they were thinking how food could be piled up so high, or how im such a genius.

Malgrif

Canada1095 Posts

December 31 2011 01:16 GMT

#20

On December 30 2011 21:27 sharky246 wrote:
thanks alot for the tips guys. I went along with endy's idea. It worked, as in 100% worked. Normally you see alittle difference between the theoretical and practical results of math. But this worked exactly as planned. And people around me in the food court were looking at me or looking at the food tower (around 15~20cm height) with open eyes and mouth abit opened.

I guess they were thinking how food could be piled up so high, or how im such a genius.

sounds amazing, you better have taken a picture.