this post was submitted on 21 May 2025
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What's funny is that you've actually stumbled onto an entire problem that's studied quite heavily. I remembered a Numberphile video about this. The problem is called "envy-free cake splitting". It's pretty straightforward. A split is envy-free if no one believes someone else got more than them. For three people this was figured out in 1960 and you can read about it here. It has been solved for N participants as well and you can read about the general problem here.
For two people, it's obvious. One splits and one chooses. The first person is incentivized to make it even because they don't know which they'll get.
I was going to give a summary of the process for three people but it's too much to explain succinctly. Just check the article I posted lol.
How is it obvious for two people, what if I have horrible manual dexterity and despite my best efforts, I slice the cake like 1/3 and 2/3, and the other person picks the bigger piece? I would very much envy the other piece
Then have them cut and you choose. Easy. Now they envy your piece and having better dexterity as well.
Insert Thanos balanced meme here.
Your "cut" would not be complete until you believe you've made them 50/50.
here we go infinite cuts