Sushi IA

Math SL Internal Assessment

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INTRODUCTION

I was always taught that family was of utmost importance. This made sense,

coming from a Chinese household, where the whole idea of family is central and core to

Chinese culture. As a result, when I was eight, my parents introduced me to the family

restaurant and gave me my first position there as a dishwasher. The idea of family had

started to come full circle for me, where each person in the family helped contribute in

some way to the business. Fast forward another eight years, and after experiencing all

sorts of positions, ranging from dishwasher to server, I had finally reached the honor of

being one of the sushi chefs at my parent’s restaurant. Arguably one of the most difficult

roles in the restaurant, it was a grueling and challenging process becoming a sushi chef

(let alone a chef in general) through the countless hours of honing your knife skills or

even learning the basics of rolling sushi. However, despite the many obstacles I had to

face during my culinary journey, I have grown to love this ancient Japanese artform and

have enjoyed making sushi for others.

Now, being the eldest son of my family, naturally, I have a lot of responsibility. This

is especially true when it comes to the restaurant with my duties ranging from managing

servers, filling in any position when needed, or sometimes assisting my mom in financial

matters. From this idea of responsibility, I was inspired to contribute in some significant

way to help improve our business and found the perfect opportunity through my math

internal assessment.
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Generally speaking, there are three important factors for a business: supply,

expenditure, and price. Supply, in our restaurant’s case, represents the weekly

requirements of fish and other material we have to import. Expenditure is the weekly cost

of operating the business (I am using time in weeks for this project because we restock

our ingredients weekly). Finally, there’s price, which is determined through a

combination of supply, expenditure, and a myriad of other factors. While I can’t find the

best price to sell products at the restaurant as I don’t quite have the experience nor the

knowledge of all the factors that affect our business, I can definitely calculate the supply

for our business. This would help us get an accurate weekly expenditure, or cost, of

running the restaurant, which is key towards determining price. So, gathering the

knowledge I’ve learned in calculus this year, I put my understanding to use. Because I

couldn’t calculate the supplies needed for every sushi roll or item on our menu, I decided

to calculate the amount of ingredients needed for our most popular roll, the Vegas roll.
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TO THE CUTTING BOARD

Figure 1

*A cross section of a Vegas roll before deep frying and after deep frying*

The Vegas roll (See Figure 1) was the sushi roll that gave our business

popularity and made our restaurant stand out. To explain the roll, it has Philadelphia

cream cheese, smoked salmon, and kanikama (also referred to as imitation crab).

Due to its popularity and deep-fried nature, we usually pre-make Vegas rolls as it saves

a lot of time for both the chef and the customer since we immediately put it into the fryer

when ordered. Using the data gathered of the average number of Vegas rolls we sell

each week and the volume of each ingredient in the roll, I could potentially calculate the

exact amount of each ingredient we need to order per week.

That being said, it was time to formulate a plan on how to go about calculating the

volume, much less, the area of the ingredients, which was easier said than done. Now,

while rolling many Vegas rolls for side work throughout the week, I observed many

patterns of the shapes that the ingredients and the overall roll came in. Some of the
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ingredients, mainly the cheese and the kanikama, came in more rectangular or square

shapes with occasional outliers of flattened semicircles of cream cheese or thin strips of

the kanikama here and there. The smoked salmon sometimes came in trapezoidal

forms, pairs of circular bulges, bits and pieces of random shapes, or roughly

heart-shaped forms.

Figure 2

*Shown here are a variety of Vegas rolls all with different shapes in their cross sections*

Now, although I would have liked to simply calculate all the different shapes and

sizes each component of the roll came in, to keep this exploration realistic and

reasonable in the sense of effort and time, I ended up choosing an example that
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displayed a general shape for each ingredient that was easier to distinguish and

calculate and drew lines over the roll to make relative shapes. (See Figure 3 below)

Figure 3

*Shown here is a cross section of a Vegas roll with approximated shapes. Note that the seaweed is in red, the

salmon is in yellow, the kanikama is in blue, and the cheese is in light green.*

As seen from Figure 3, many of these shapes were irregular and couldn’t really

be replicated well with rectangular coordinates and regular functions. As a result, I

looked into polar coordinates and functions as they would allow me to access many

shapes similar to the ones in the roll. Using polar functions and the measurements in the

table listed below, it was time to find the equations for each component of the sushi roll.
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Diameter of Base Radius of Base Height

Entire Roll 4.2 2.1 4.1

Seaweed 3.5 1.75 3.4

Smoked Salmon 3.2 1.6 1.6

Cream Cheese 1.5 0.75 0.9

Kanikama 1.1 0.55 1.3

Table 1

*Shown here is a table of the dimensions of each ingredient for the Vegas roll we chose for this exploration.*

MATHEMATICAL PROCEDURE PART I: EQUATIONS OF POLAR FUNCTIONS

Now, before I came up with the equations for the different elements of the Vegas

roll, I had to first look into the properties and transformations of polar graphs in order to

get the accurate and exact values of the dimensions of the roll. From the research I did, I

found that all polar functions can be represented in the general formula of

𝑟 = 𝑎 + 𝑏 𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝑘θ where 𝑎, 𝑏, and 𝑘 are constants. (Note that the graph can also be in

the form of 𝑟 = 𝑎 + 𝑏 𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝑘θ but I will use the former equation for my explanations.) From

this formula, I found that we can subdivide polar functions into four main types based on

their properties when we assign specific values of 𝑎, 𝑏, and 𝑘. From these classes of
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polar functions, I was able to categorize each component of my roll as one of these

classes, shown in the table below. This would help me later in determining the equations

for my functions.

Equation Polar Function

𝑎 = 0, 𝑏 ≠ 0, 𝑘 = 1 Circle

𝑎 ≠ 0, 𝑏 ≠ 0, 𝑘 = 1 Limaçon

𝑎 = 0, 𝑏 ≠ 0, 𝑘 ≠ 0 Rhodonea (Rose) Curve

𝑎 ≠ 0, 𝑏 ≠ 0, 𝑘 ≠ 0 Limaçon Rose Curve (Hybrid of previous

two polar functions)

Table 2

*Shown here is a table, summarizing the different polar equations.*

From these general subdivisions of polar functions, I was able to more accurately

distinguish these polar shapes than before for my exploration. I found that the general

shape of the overall roll was a petal from a limaçon rose curve, the seaweed layer was a

limaçon, the salmon was a two petaled limaçon rose curve, and the kanikama was a

petal from a limaçon rose curve. (I omitted the cheese as it was a rectangle which would

be significantly easier to calculate the area than the other ingredients.) This means that

all of these functions have the specific requirements that 𝑎 ≠ 0, 𝑏 ≠ 0, and 𝑘 ≠ 0,

resulting in a limaçon rose curve, except for the seaweed layer which had the
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requirement that 𝑎 ≠ 0, 𝑏 ≠ 0, and 𝑘 = 1 as it was a regular limaçon. Now that we

know the specific general shapes and formulas, it was time to look into transformations

of polar curves and find our equations.

The transformations of polar curves are very different to that of regular rectangular

equations for functions because, in polar curves, θ, which determines angle, is different

from any 𝑥 or 𝑦, representing certain lengths in a rectangular equation. Because of this, I

needed to do a lot of research into finding how I can manipulate these functions to get

the shapes and values I wanted. According to my research, I found that the constant 𝑎 is

responsible for the radius of the outer loop of limaçon related equations and the general

shape of limaçon related equations, 𝑏 is also responsible for the general shape of

limaçon related equations, and 𝑘 determines the number of petals for rose curve related

equations. From the ratios of different values of 𝑎 and 𝑏, this determined the shape of the

limaçon related equation we would get, as summarized in the table below.

Equation Type of Limaçon

𝑎=𝑏 Cardioid

𝑎>𝑏 Dimpled

𝑎<𝑏 Inner Loop

Table 3

*Shown here is a summary of the specific types of limaçons and their graphs.*

From this table, I saw that, in my exploration, I would need 𝑎 > 𝑏 for my equations as

they were all dimpled limaçons or limaçon rose curve hybrids. I also found that if we

modify our general equation of a polar function into 𝑟 = 𝑎 + 𝑏 𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝑘 (θ − ℎ) that the
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value of ℎ would shift the angle to where the equation normally graphed at θ = 0. From

this information, I was able to find my equations.

First up, finding the equation of the general shape of the sushi roll, or the rice

layer. Since I determined that the shape looked like a single petal from a limaçon rose

curve, I decided to use some form of 𝑠𝑖𝑛 2θ in order to create multiple petals for my

function. Now, a regular rose curve of 𝑠𝑖𝑛 2θ is tilted around 45 degrees to the right, so in

order to more easily calculate and check the accuracy of my values, I decided to make

π
the petal vertical by subtracting 2θ by 2
. For the function’s θ range, I had to get a result

π
from our equation so far, 𝑠𝑖𝑛 (2θ − 2
), that made a single petal from a limaçon rose

curve in the shape of a sushi roll. Now, normally half of a limaçon rose curve would have

π π
a range of (0, 2
), but, since I rotated the function 45 degrees ( 2 ) to the left, the value I

ended up needing was π , which made my θ range (0, π). Plugging in π, which is the

π
maximum angle or value of θ, into our equation so far, 𝑠𝑖𝑛 (2θ − 2
), we would get -1.

Knowing that I needed 2.1 as the radius of the entire roll, I decided to add 3.1 into the

equation to get the radius I needed. Now, I could’ve gotten the same radius a multitude

π
of ways such as if I had multiplied 𝑠𝑖𝑛 (2θ + 2
) by 2 and added 0.1, but this would

produce a limaçon rose curve with an inner loop, messing up the shape by making it

flatter, which is why I made my 𝑎 value way bigger than my 𝑏 value. This was also the

case for the rest of my polar functions. From these calculations, the resultant equation for

π
the outside layer of the roll came out to be 3. 1 + 𝑠𝑖𝑛 (2θ − 2
). Now, finding the

equations for each ingredient of the roll turned out to be very tedious, as it took me over

three hours to do so. So, instead of trying to explain how I found equations for each of
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the other components, for the sake of brevity, just know that I used a similar approach of

how I found the equation for the general shape of the roll to find the rest of the equations

for each ingredient in my exploration. This left me with the following final equations:

Component Polar Equation Range of Function

Overall Shape of Roll/Rice 3. 1 + 𝑠𝑖𝑛 (2θ −

π
) (0, π)
2
Layer

Seaweed Layer 1. 75 + 𝑠𝑖𝑛 θ (0, 2π)

Salmon 1. 25 + 0. 35 𝑠𝑖𝑛 (θ +
π
) (0, 2π)
2

Kanikama 0. 4 + 𝑠𝑖𝑛 2θ (0,

π
)
2

And there we have it – the equations of our polar shapes! Below is the Desmos

representation of all of the polar shapes put together, and, wow, it turned out better than I

expected! I have also put the original roll with the graphical representation for comparing

how close my graph is to the real model.

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Figure 4

*A graphical representation of the Vegas roll compared to the original model*

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MATHEMATICAL PROCEDURE PART II: AREA OF POLAR FUNCTIONS

β
1 2
The formula for the area of a polar curve is 2
∫𝑟 (θ)dθ, generally speaking. Now,
α

since we have already determined 𝑟(θ) and the bounds, all we have to do is plug these

values into the formula for each component of the Vegas roll, right? Unfortunately, that is

not the case as the area of the rice layer of the roll isn’t the area of the entire roll. Rather,

it is the area of the entire roll minus the area under the seaweed curve. With the

seaweed layer, while I could technically calculate the area of it, I found that it wasn’t

necessary as I was only calculating the area to find ratios between ingredients to find

how much I needed of each element per roll. Since each time you make a sushi roll, you

only need one piece of seaweed for the Vegas, in this case, the ratio of seaweed to the

other ingredients is always 1 (seaweed) : Ingredient A : Ingredient B : Ingredient C. For

the other ingredients, we can simply plug the equations into the formula as their areas

are under their polar function’s curve.

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Area of entire roll/Area under Rice Layer:

π
1 π 2
2
∫(3. 1 + 𝑠𝑖𝑛(2θ − 2
)) 𝑑θ
0

π
1 π π 2
2
∫(9. 61 + 6. 2 𝑠𝑖𝑛2(θ − 4
) + 𝑠𝑖𝑛2(θ − 4
)) 𝑑θ
0

π π π
1 6.2 𝑐𝑜𝑠2(θ− 4 ) θ− 4 𝑠𝑖𝑛 (2×2(θ− 4 )) π
2
((9. 61θ − 2
+ 2
− 4(2)
) |0

π π
1 π θ− 4 𝑠𝑖𝑛 4(θ− 4 ) π
2
(9. 61θ − 3. 1 𝑐𝑜𝑠2(θ − 4
) + 2
− 8
) |0

π π π π
1 π π− 4 𝑠𝑖𝑛 4(π− 4 ) π 0− 4 𝑠𝑖𝑛 4(0− 4 )
2
((9. 61(π) − 3. 1 𝑐𝑜𝑠2(π − 4
) + 2
− 8
) − (9. 61(0) − 3. 1 𝑐𝑜𝑠2(0 − 4
) + 2
− 8
))

1 3π 3π 𝑠𝑖𝑛 3π π π 𝑠𝑖𝑛 (−π)

2
((9. 61(π) − 3. 1 𝑐𝑜𝑠( 2
) + 8
− 8
) − (3. 1 𝑐𝑜𝑠(− 2
) + (− 8
) − 8
))

1 3π π
2
((9. 61(π) + 8
) − (− 8
))

1 3π π
2
(9. 61(π) + 8
+ 8
)

1 π
2
(9. 61(π) + 2
)

2
≈ 15.88075086 𝑐𝑚.

2
≈ 15.881 𝑐𝑚.

*Note: To be concise, as a summary for the other calculations, I ended up using a similar

method as well.

Area under Seaweed Layer:

2π
1 2
2
∫ (1. 75 + 𝑠𝑖𝑛(θ)) 𝑑θ
0
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2
≈ 11.192 𝑐𝑚.

Area of Rice:

π 2π
1 π 2 1 2
2
∫(3. 1 + 𝑠𝑖𝑛(2θ − 2
)) 𝑑θ - 2
∫ (1. 75 + 𝑠𝑖𝑛(θ)) 𝑑θ
0 0

2
≈ 4.689 𝑐𝑚.

Smoked Salmon:

2π
1 π 2
2
∫ (1. 25 + 0. 35 𝑠𝑖𝑛(2θ + 2
)) 𝑑θ
0

2
≈ 5.101 𝑐𝑚.

Kanikama:
π
2
1 2
2
∫(0. 4 + 𝑠𝑖𝑛(2θ)) 𝑑θ
0

2
≈ 0. 918 𝑐𝑚.

Now that we have the area of our ingredients that had polar shapes, it’s time to calculate

the area of the cream cheese through using the equation for the area of a rectangle,

𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑒 × ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡.

Cream Cheese:

2
1. 5𝑥0. 9 = 1. 35 𝑐𝑚.

And there we have it – the areas of all of our ingredients! Finally, in order to find

the volume of each of these ingredients, we need to multiply these areas by 19.05𝑐𝑚.
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which gets us the following final values: 89.322 𝑐𝑚. (rice), 97.177 𝑐𝑚. (smoked

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salmon), 17.495 𝑐𝑚. (kanikama), and 25.718 (cream cheese).

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

Now that we have the volumes of each ingredient of our Vegas roll, we can

calculate the ratios of each ingredient to each other per one Vegas roll. This ends up

being 89.322 (rice) : 97.177 (smoked salmon) : 17.495 (kanikama) : 25.718 (cream

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cheese) with these being the ratios of the areas in 𝑐𝑚. . Now, to determine weekly

supply ratios, I have to multiply these values with the average number of Vegas rolls we

sell in a week and then convert everything to pounds since we order everything by the

pound. According to our sales records, the average amount of rolls per week for the most

recent month of May ended up being 220 rolls. So, when we multiply these values by

220, this leaves us with 19,650.874 (rice): 21,378.966 (smoked salmon): 3848.858

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(kanikama): 5657.850 (cream cheese) with values being in 𝑐𝑚. . Now, doing some unit

conversions to convert centimeters to pounds, we get our final ratio of our ingredients in

pounds to be 43.323 (rice): 47.133 (smoked salmon): 8.485 (kanikama): 12.473 (cream

cheese). Since seaweed is always a 1:1 ratio with the amount of rolls, the weekly supply

will always equal the average rolls sold in a week which ends up being 220 seaweed

pieces per week.

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REFLECTION

In the end, although I successfully calculated ratios of the ingredients to each

other and met my aim of finding the supplies needed per week for the restaurant through

this exploration, there were many variables, factors, and other complications that I

couldn’t solve and handle which would have improved the accuracy and realisticality of

the results. First of all, due to the randomness of sushi and how shapes may vary roll to

roll, areas of these shapes may vary as well which makes it hard to find an average area

for each roll without hundreds upon thousands of trials of different rolls. But even then,

the average would still just be an approximation, and, because I didn’t have the time,

money, nor level of math to calculate every single shape over thousands of trials of

variations of the Vegas roll, I could only approximate to my best ability the area of a

single case of shapes for the Vegas roll. But even those shapes I had to approximate as I

didn’t know how to calculate their natural shape with the level of understanding in math I

have. There is also the fact that not every ingredient is completely even throughout as

you would need machine cutting and other tools to do so which is both expensive and

unrealistic for my case as we don’t have those machines and capabilities at our

restaurant. (It is hard to filet, let alone cut, a fish cleanly and evenly in the first place, and

you would be wasting a lot of fish if you required each piece to be perfectly even

because of the amount of fish that is naturally uneven.) However, to offer a potential

solution to these problems, uneven volumes due to varying depths throughout an object

and areas of any shape, regardless of its irregularities, can be calculated using

multivariable calculus and other higher level math. Another problem I encountered
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through my exploration was the empty space between my seaweed layer and the

ingredients inside my roll. Theoretically, in a realistic sushi roll, there should be very

minimal to almost no space between the seaweed and ingredients inside the roll as a

good sushi roll is tightly packed so that it doesn’t fall apart the instant you pick it up. I

attempted to solve this problem through parametrizing my polar functions which would

allow me to stretch or shrink my polar functions to fit the seaweed wrap better. However, I

couldn’t figure out how to find the area of a parametric polar function. I knew how to

calculate area for parametric functions and for polar functions, but wasn’t totally sure

how to calculate area when these two concepts are combined. Another factor mentioned

earlier in this exploration is that the Vegas roll doesn’t account for all of the cheese,

kanikama, and smoked salmon we use per week as these ingredients are used in other

rolls as well. Despite these complications in my exploration, I believe that with more time

and a greater understanding of mathematics, I would be able to do a variety of things

with this topic. Since the Vegas roll was a deep fried roll, one idea is that I could

calculate the average volume of batter needed per Vegas roll. Not to mention, the Vegas

roll uses various toppings such as scallions, fish eggs, and many sauces that enhance

its flavor, so I could even calculate the average amount of sauce used per roll. I couldn’t

calculate the volume of these factors in my exploration as I didn’t know exactly how I

would find the amount of batter used just by calculating the area of the fried portion of the

roll which was already a difficult concept, and I didn’t want to overcomplicate my

exploration due to the lack of time.

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CONCLUSION

There is a very old Chinese proverb by Confucius that goes ” 千⾥之⾏， 始於⾜下“,
or ”the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.“ Ever since I first saw my dad

make sushi, I’ve always wanted to become a sushi master like him. Since that first step I

took of learning about the restaurant by being a dishwasher, I’ve slowly, but surely, made

my way up to the top. Although it is a long and challenging journey, through persistence

and a curious approach, I’ve been able to progress a lot in the span of five or so years.

Much like sushi, math is a slow process that can be aggravating at times but comes with

its rewards as well. I remember I used to hate every subject at school, especially math,

and had an average of a C or B back in second grade. However, since I started working

at the restaurant and learned to look at life through curious eyes and act with patience,

my understanding and relationship with school, especially math, has made significant

bounds and leaps. With this open-minded and persistent learning approach, life has

been more colorful and enjoyable, allowing me to focus on the things I value most,

especially that of family. I may not be able to help my parents as much in terms of

improving general efficiency and functionality of the restaurant. But, as Confucius said,

at least I have taken the first step, and I am sure that with small progressions bit by bit,

one day I will be able to let my parents rest easy and show my appreciation towards

them for showing me the beauty of curiosity through the restaurant, much like the

mysterious, yet breathtaking world of mathematics.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Elton, Owen. “The Geometry of Sushi.” Matheminutes, 27 Aug. 2011,

http://matheminutes.blogspot.com/2011/08/geometry-of-sushi.html.

“Rose (Mathematics).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 22 July 2021,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_%28mathematics%29.

Szatkowski, Alex. Polar Equations, 2012,

http://jwilson.coe.uga.edu/emat6680fa2012/szatkowski/SzatkowskiWU11/ASwriteu

p11.html.