I always love this sort of article. Here’s a piece from Wired on the mathematics (and physics) of holding a slice of pizza:
Behind this pizza trick lies a powerful mathematical result about curved surfaces, one that’s so startling that its discoverer, the mathematical genius Carl Friedrich Gauss, named it Theorema Egregium, Latin for excellent or remarkable theorem.
with a bonus feature on supporting a can of beans with an ordinary piece of paper.
Gauss is one of the great geniuses of history, a truly wonderful and divergent thinker. It’s a shame that more people aren’t aware of that remarkable man and his many contributions.
Gauss gets my vote for most intelligent human known.
I am partial to Newton – physics and mathematics.