Publications [#268205] of Henry Petroski

Papers Published

1. Petroski, H, A round pie in a square box, American Scientist, vol. 99 no. 4 (July, 2011), pp. 288-292, Sigma Xi, ISSN 0003-0996 [doi]
   (last updated on 2023/06/01)

   Abstract:
   The white-boxes-and-string world of the old-time bakeshop is alien to the baked-goods department of today's supermarket. The incongruity of things made and things found is a fact of life, and like most facts of life it is accepted as the way things are, if not embraced as welcome variety. Relatively thin and un-reinforced cardboard, the stuff of which cake and cereal boxes are made, is a rather flimsy material and hardly suitable for bearing the weight of a pizza pie distributed over the reach of a 16- or 18-inch circle. Reverse engineering the cereal box begins with emptying it of its contents and unsealing the bottom. This leaves an open-box structure, which is readily felt to be much less rigid than its closed counterpart. The doubly-opened box can be sighted through, as if it were a tube.