Mathematical Muffin Morsels: Nobody Wants A Small Piece

William Gasarch, Erik Metz, Jacob Prinz, Daniel Smolyak (Autoren)

Buch | Hardcover

228 Seiten

2020
World Scientific Publishing Co Pte Ltd (Verlag)
978-981-12-1517-9 (ISBN)

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Suppose you have five muffins that you want to divide and give to Alice, Bob, and Carol. You want each of them to get 5/3. You could cut each muffin into 1/3-1/3-1/3 and give each student five 1/3-sized pieces. But Alice objects! She has large hands! She wants everyone to have pieces larger than 1/3.Is there a way to divide five muffins for three students so that everyone gets 5/3, and all pieces are larger than 1/3? Spoiler alert: Yes! In fact, there is a division where the smallest piece is 5/12. Is there a better division? Spoiler alert: No.In this book we consider THE MUFFIN PROBLEM: what is the best way to divide up m muffins for s students so that everyone gets m/s muffins, with the smallest pieces maximized. We look at both procedures for the problem and proofs that these procedures are optimal.This problem takes us through much mathematics of interest, for example, combinatorics and optimization theory. However, the math is elementary enough for an advanced high school student.

Erscheinungsdatum	29.06.2020
Reihe/Serie	Problem Solving in Mathematics and Beyond ; 16
Verlagsort	Singapore
Sprache	englisch
Themenwelt	Mathematik / Informatik ► Mathematik ► Mathematische Spiele und Unterhaltung
ISBN-10	981-12-1517-0 / 9811215170
ISBN-13	978-981-12-1517-9 / 9789811215179
Zustand	Neuware