I have twin boys. Whatever enters the home must be divided equally. Not doing this causes great wrath. This always entails me or my wife solving for them. I was wondering if it would be possible to delegate this problem with my boys and come up with a result that is free of violence.
There are several easy solutions, One, have clearly measured it by a measuring cup and divide. The other one, buy an extra Can. These are not interesting and don't talk much about the process of division as opposed to just achieving the outcome we need.
Here is how you do it. Ask one of your children to appropriate the coke equally, and once done, he should let his brother choose what he wants. He takes the other one.
For the 2-player scenario, here's how we segment the issue into 2 steps.
1).One who does the “pouring” job.
2).The other gets to choose first.
"Pouring" person gets the least priority in the "Selection" step. The incentive for the one who owns the “divide” portion is set in a way that he has to make sure he splits as much accurate as possible as he will be the last person to pick.
This is a problem of game theory, and it is called "Mechanism Design". The idea is to explore the creation of rules for resource allocation through incentives, towards desired objectives, where stakeholders can act rationally.
In real life, this approach created a new problem for me in having a fight between the two of who does the pouring and choosing. Endless battle!.