Three cooks have each paid one third to purchase a bag of herbs. In the past, two of the cooks have divided their purchases in the following manner: First one cook would divide the herb, by eye, into two piles she considered to be equal. The second cook would then choose the pile she thought was bigger.

By what process may the three cooks divide their herbs in such a way that each was content that she had recieved at least one third of the total? (No scales or other devices are available to assist the division)

(In reply to totally different solution by Ady TZIDON)

I'm not convinced... Say that person A, again, has horrid judgement. A is making a pile that's obviously larger than one third of the herbs, and B siezes the chance to shout "For me!" C was going to do the same, but had decided to wait for it to get as big as possible. Now, A is satisfied with half of the leftovers, thanks to her judgement issues, but C knows that she's getting less than her share. In this way, C or B could be dissatisfied. The method works within the realm of reasonable humans, but logically it could malfunction.

Posted by thegnome54 on 2006-01-29 10:44:11