Bi-Co Math Colloquium with William Gasarch
William Gasarch from the University of Maryland will give a talk titled, "The Muffin Problem."
Abstract: Let's say you have 5 muffins and you want to cut them up and give them out to Alice, Bob, and Carol so that they each get 5/3. This is easy! You can cut each one into 1/3-1/3-1/3 and give each person five 1/3-pieces. But then the smallest piece is 1/3. Can we do better? Is there a way to divide 5 muffins for 3 people so that the smallest piece is BIGGER than 1/3? What is the BEST you can do? More generally… Given m muffins and s students, how can you divide m muffins for s students so that each student gets m/s and the SMALLEST piece is MAXIMIZED? We will discuss various techniques to solve this problem. We will also discuss why this was a good research project.
Bryn Mawr College welcomes the full participation of all individuals in all aspects of campus life. Should you wish to request a disability-related accommodation for this event, please contact the event sponsor/coordinator. Requests should be made as early as possible.