Hey kids, if you’ve been looking for a reason to do your math homework, we’ve finally got one for you!
George W. Hart, a math professor at New York’s Stony Brook University, used geometric principles to come up with a better way to slice a bagel. His clever cleaving technique links the two sides of the bagel together for easier eating—eliminating those two separate pieces that must inconveniently be picked up one at a time—while also creating more surface area for adding cream cheese and even-sized slices.
Just make four 180-degree cuts, “tease it apart gently,” and voila! It’s no radish rose, but it’s a pretty nifty twist on the bagel’s traditional breakfast look.
Of course, your sculptural bagel won’t fit in a slot-style toaster, and you will have to give it a few twists during toasting for even browning in a toaster oven.
Another downside is that half of your bagel will be upside-down. Luckily cream cheese is sticky. But what about the lox and capers?
Our own Al Roker was unimpressed. “Who has the time?!” he exclaimed. True that, Al. When no one's looking we eat our bagels like monsters anyway, tearing it apart and scooping up cream cheese.
While we think the linked bagel is cool, what would really impress us, Prof. Hart, is if you magically transformed a bagel into bacon. We guess we’ll leave that one to the physics professors.