Math Eases Breakup Acrimony

Writing for Nautilus, Erica Klarreich surveys the use of fair-division algorithms to make everything from sharing a cake to parceling out an estate less likely to provoke animosity.

Klarreich cites a paper in the January 2013 American Mathematical Monthly in which Steven Brams, Christian Klamler, and Mathematics Magazine editor-elect Michael Jones show that when three people divide a cake, there is not always a division that is simultaneously envy-free, equitable, and efficient.

Klarreich also notes the difficulty of applying division algorithms:

While fair division algorithms have come a long way, their real-world use can be complex. For one thing, human beings can entertain equally compelling but mutually exclusive notions of fairness. When siblings are dividing their parents’ estate, for example, should each sibling get an equal share, or should the sibling who nursed their father through his last illness get more? A fair division algorithm cannot make this determination for a family.

Read the piece.