What is a Sandwich?

After the heated sandwich discussion in class, I decided to revisit the subject.  When asked to give a general definition of a sandwich, our group said a sandwich is 2 pieces of bread with stuff inside.  This definition seemed to cover what we believed to be all sandwiches, but little did we know we had left out a lot of options.  When thinking of the list: grilled cheese, BLT, pizza, hot dog, bagel
 (as seen to the right), taco, burger, and corn dog, I decided that only the grilled cheese and BLT were logical sandwiches.  After later realization, I noticed that my definition fit for the bagel and burger as well.  I thought that was crazy so I went back to change my definition to something that made more sense, but I couldn't figure out a way to exclude the two odd food items.  After talking in class I realized that I was looking at the question all wrong.

After coming home and doing some research, I found that Dictionary.com defines a sandwich as "two or more slices of bread with a layer of meat, fish, cheese, etc. in between each pair."  When looking at this definition, I can poke a lot of holes into this opinion.  I used to work at

Subway Sandwich Shop, and we were known for specializing in sandwiches.  We have a special way of making the bread which looks like a long bread roll when finished.  To open it, we stick the knife into one side, cut one long edge until we are evenly on the opposite side, and then fold the bread open.  In the end, there is only one piece of bread that contains all of the fillings.  This completely proves that Dictionary.com's definition is false.  To add to our group's definition, I would say that a sandwich is one or more pieces of bread with stuff inside.  Looking back at the list of possible sandwiches, this new definitions would include the grilled cheese, BLT, hot dog, bagel, burger, corn dog, taco, and pizza when eaten in taco format.  After determining my results, I thought this could't be right, but then I decided to relate it to mathematical shapes.

When remembering our assignment about deciding what shapes fell into what
category, I remembered how we learned that a square is a rectangle, but a rectangle is not a square.  I think that the proposed sandwich question forces us to think exactly the same way as when looking at shapes.  A square is defined as a figure with 4 equal straight lines and 4 right angles.  A rectangle is defined as a figure with 4 straight sides including 2 pairs of equal sides parallel to each other and 4 right angles.  When looking at these definitions, a square could count as a rectangle because it has 4 straight sides and 2 pairs of equal sides parallel to each other and 4 right angles.  It doesn't matter that both pairs are the same thing because it still counts as a rectangle.  A rectangle, however, could not count as a square because rectangles only have 2 pairs of equal sides parallel to each other. A result of this theory is that even though a square can fall into the category of a rectangle, a person always calls it a square as soon as they see it.  The same thing applies with sandwiches, when a person looks at a piece of pizza they automatically think of it as a piece of pizza even though it can technically be placed in the category of a sandwich.  By looking at all sandwiches (and shapes) differently, a person's mindset can completely change and open up to the possibilities  the world holds.  To end this post I would like to leave you a little Oprah.