Physics Defeats Math In First Annual Pi Eating Contest
Stanford Physics students dig in to a 4 lb, 12 oz apple-berry pie at the 1st annual Math vs. Physics Pi Eating Contest.
Math quiz: How many physicists does it take to eat a 4 pound, 12 ounce apple-berry pie in 3 minutes and 9 seconds? Amazingly, only five, as the Stanford Physics Department team proved at the first annual Math vs. Physics Pi Eating Contest, which took place on Pi Day, March 14, 2025.
The winning Physics team consisted of Roger Blandford (professor of Physics, KIPAC), León Garcia (Physics undergraduate, co-president of SUPS), Ethan Rosenfeld (Applied Physics graduate student, former president of SUPS), Pranav Parakh (Applied Physics graduate student), Blake Wendland (Applied Physics graduate student).
Garcia proposed the idea for a pie-eating contest at a January meeting of SUPS (Stanford University Physics Society) as a joke. “The SUPS leadership team actually loved the idea, so I talked to the president of SUMO (Stanford University Mathematical Organization), Andrew Lee, about having a pie-eating competition against them, and he was on board with it from the get-go,” he said. “I had Skyler Hamlin, who is a member of SUPS and SUMO leadership, serve as liaison and coordinator between the two groups for this event.”
But what is a competitive eating event without a celebrity judge? Says Garcia, “Francesca Fernandes, the Co-President of SUPS got an email a while back from (Stanford president) Jon Levin congratulating her on being selected as a Rhodes Scholar, and I asked her to respond to the email asking if he was interested in serving as a judge/participant in a pie-eating competition since he was a math undergraduate here many years ago,” Garcia said. “The Office of the President got back to us in early March saying that he would love to know more details about the event and participate, which came as a shock to us!”
The winning team received a pie tin signed by Levin, which will be displayed prominently in the Varian building. Garcia plans on having it made into a permanent plaque which can be passed between departments. “We were pleasantly surprised by how large the turnout and excitement were for this event, and that the president of Stanford took time out of his schedule to participate in this event as a judge, mingling with students afterwards to eat one of the many pies we purchased for general consumption,” he said. “We will definitely make this an annual event, hopefully making it a longstanding tradition between SUPS and SUMO for many years to come!”
Pi Day was established in 1988 by Larry Shaw, an employee of the Exploratorium science museum in San Francisco, and designated by Congress in 2009. It takes place every March 14 (3/14) to commemorate the first three digits of the mathematical constant Pi. Fittingly, the Math vs. Physics contest also kicked off at 3:14 (and 15 seconds) in the afternoon.