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Re: Cake Division

Sandra Snan proposed some compelling ideas for the fair divvying up of cake, quite apt for this time of year in many parts of the world.

gemini://idiomdrottning.org/cake/

While, on the face of it, this seems an excellent idea, I think it has one critical shortcoming regarding the 'splitsies' mechanism that she has not considered, and a clear example of something that looks great on paper, but falls short in practise.

The problem I see is that what we traditonally consider to be 'cake' is cut into 'wedge' shapes, and typically has some kind of filling sandwiched between the sponge layers.

Consider, for example, a wedge of Victoria Sponge. It can be stood upright and cut in half vertically, but this is extremely difficult to do accurately, as downward force of the knife translates into lateral force on the sponge/icing boundary. With nothing to 'contain' the sponge, it slides sideways as the knife cuts downwards.

I'd consider this difficult to do for a group of two people, and practically impossible when the target group contains three or more.

You might think "don't be stupid, lay it on its side and divide it that way", but it's been shown that people are woeful at judging fractions of triangles, and so volumes of wedges would consequently be even more difficult.

In fact, people are often surprised when they see what constitutes half a triangle by area, so it follows that they'd likely not believe that the wedge was honestly divided. This would likely cause arguments, defeating the very purpose of having the cake in the first place.

Of course, there are other minor issues, such as the loss of butter-icing to the blade of the knife (who gets it?), but I think the above failings are enough to show that you can't beat a digital protractor and a measuring tape. Sometimes the traditional way is best.