1st Edition

Cake-Cutting Algorithms Be Fair if You Can

By Jack Robertson, William Webb Copyright 1998
    177 Pages
    by A K Peters/CRC Press

    The challenge of dividing an asset fairly, from cakes to more important properties, is of great practical importance in many situations. Since the famous Polish school of mathematicians (Steinhaus, Banach, and Knaster) introduced and described algorithms for the fair division problem in the 1940s, the concept has been widely popularized.

    This book gathers into one readable and inclusive source a comprehensive discussion of the state of the art in cake-cutting problems for both the novice and the professional. It offers a complete treatment of all cake-cutting algorithms under all the considered definitions of "fair" and presents them in a coherent, reader-friendly manner. Robertson and Webb have brought this elegant problem to life for both the bright high school student and the professional researcher.

    Preface 1 Fairly Dividing a Cake 2 Pieces or Crumbs - How Many Cuts Are Needed? 3 Unequal Shares 4 The Serendipity of Disagreement 5 Some Variations on the Theme of ''Fair'' Division 6 Some Combinatorial Observations 7 Interlude: An Inventory of Results 8 Impossibility Theorems 9 Attempting Fair Division with a Limited Number of Cuts 10 Exact and Envy-Free Algorithms 11 A Return to Division for Unequal Shares

    Biography

    Jack Robertson, William Webb

    Cake-Cutting Algorithms will engage and challenge both veteran and novice mathematicians...
           -- Francis Edward Su, American Mathematical Monthly , March 2000