Pizza Hut Is Offering Free Pizza to a Few Lucky People Who Solve Pi Day Math Problems

Happy Pi Day! Let’s estimate the amount of pie we’re going to eat this evening!

Seriously, though—if you like your pie in pizza form and you’re interested in getting it for free, Pizza Hut is running a math contest:

National Pi Day Math Contest Problems Are Here! – Hut Life – Pizza Hut Brand Blog

If you answer one of three math problems correctly, you have the opportunity to win free Pizza Hut pizza for the next 3.14 years.

Here’s an example:

I’m thinking of a ten-digit integer whose digits are all distinct. It happens that the number formed by the first n of them is divisible by n for each n from 1 to 10. What is my number?

If you clever Billfolders already know how to calculate the answer, be aware that there are, of course, a few catches:

1. It’s Pizza Hut pizza.
2. Pizza Hut posted the contest on its blog and wants you to leave your answers in the comments, meaning everyone who reads the comments will be spoiled.
3. Pizza Hut is awarding prizes as follows: “If you are the first person to solve the problem correctly, you may be a potential winner.”
4. The contest began at 8 a.m. Eastern time and people were posting their answers within minutes.
5. If you wanted to learn about the contest in advance (so you could set your alarm) you had to be an avid follower of the Pizza Hut “Hut Life” blog. As far as I can tell, the contest was announced on the blog on Friday, March 10 but was not pushed out to Pizza Hut’s Facebook or Twitter accounts.

I have a few questions: first, which of us can solve Pizza Hut’s Pi Day math problems? I feel like I could if I were able to sit and stare at them for a couple of hours, but I know I wouldn’t be the one posting answers at 8:02 a.m.

Also, did you have any idea this was happening? I found out this morning via Consumerist, since I reluctantly admit I am not an active Hut Life reader.

Lastly: would you be interested in winning 3.14 years of free Pizza Hut pizza? If you ordered their “two medium pizzas for $6.99 each” special every Friday for the next three years and seven weeks, you’d save $2,278.74 before tax and tips.

Of course, the official Pizza Hut contest rules state that you’ll only get $1,600 in free pizza, which seems like an irrational number. (Thanks, Billfolders. I’ll be here all week.) At $6.99 for a medium pizza, you could only order 229 medium pizzas over the 163 weeks; if you wanted a large pizza, which starts at $13.00, you could only order 123 pizzas—and the number drops with every topping. There’s probably also tax involved, so you’d get even less pizza than I’m suggesting.

But now I’m curious: if a Pizza Hut medium pizza has a 12″ diameter and a Pizza Hut large pizza has a 14″ diameter, then the area of a single medium pizza is 113.1 square inches and the area of a single large pizza is 153.94 square inches.

So… 229 medium pizzas would total 25,899.90 square inches of pizza, and 123 large pizzas would total 18,934.62 square inches of pizza.

IF YOU WIN THE PIZZA HUT CONTEST, go for the mediums.

That’s the kind of math problem I can do. Happy Pi Day!

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