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One big challenge in life is dividing things fairly. From sharing a tasty snack to allocating resources between nations, having a strategy to divvy things up equitably will make everyone a little happier.
But it gets complicated when the thing you are dividing isn’t an indistinguishable substance: maybe the cake you are sharing has a cherry on top, and the piece with the cherry (or the area of coastline with good fish stocks) is more desirable. Luckily, maths – specifically game theory, which deals with strategy and decision-making when people interact – has some ideas.
When splitting between two parties, you might…
