My recollection from the class was that cake cutting was impossible to be done fairly as well, but we only briefly discussed it for about 30 minutes. In reading Wikipedia, it seems I’m wrong—it just takes many, many cuts. Thanks for correcting me.
If I had taught that class I would have emphasized that Arrow’s theorem involves discrete choices. There are many ways around it using continuous choices. Thus, cake cutting should not be surprised.
Also, I would have emphasized n=2. Arrow’s theorem is obvious in that case. And everyone knows how to cut cake into two pieces.
Yeah, it seems as though that would have been a better approach. I never got that.
But the class was almost three years ago and it was just a one credit hour Credit/No Credit “freshman honors symposium”. It wasn’t exactly the most rigorous of introductions.
Odd that you should mention cake-cutting theory, because it says the opposite of Arrow’s theorem.
My recollection from the class was that cake cutting was impossible to be done fairly as well, but we only briefly discussed it for about 30 minutes. In reading Wikipedia, it seems I’m wrong—it just takes many, many cuts. Thanks for correcting me.
If I had taught that class I would have emphasized that Arrow’s theorem involves discrete choices. There are many ways around it using continuous choices. Thus, cake cutting should not be surprised.
Also, I would have emphasized n=2. Arrow’s theorem is obvious in that case. And everyone knows how to cut cake into two pieces.
Yeah, it seems as though that would have been a better approach. I never got that.
But the class was almost three years ago and it was just a one credit hour Credit/No Credit “freshman honors symposium”. It wasn’t exactly the most rigorous of introductions.