Introduction to the idea of Fair Division

If we have fifty identical pieces of candy, how do we divide them fairly among five children?
PROBLEM FROM A FOURTH GRADE SCHOOLBOOK

It's pretty simple to solve a problem like the one above for two reasons:

• Each piece of candy is identical
• 5 goes evenly into 50

But what if one or both of these conditions is not true?

For example, what if we must divide an estate of a father among his 4 children.
The estate consists of the following:

• 2 homes
• 3 cars
• 5 antique pieces of furniture
• $150,000 in cash

If there is no will and the children cannot agree among themselves, are there mathematically sound procedures that will guarantee each person a fair share of the estate?

Problems like the one above are the focus of this chapter.

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