I remember reading a hypothesis that Egyptian fractions were (are?) easier for innumerate people to reason about intuitively. That is, the division of N into M equal parts is easier if everyone gets the same pieces.
For example, if I divide three gold bars between seven people naively, some of them get bars that are 3/7 long and some get three small pieces of 1/7 the amount. If instead I give everyone a 1/4 bar, a 1/7 bar and a 1/28 bar, this is trivially obvious to be fair.
For example, if I divide three gold bars between seven people naively, some of them get bars that are 3/7 long and some get three small pieces of 1/7 the amount. If instead I give everyone a 1/4 bar, a 1/7 bar and a 1/28 bar, this is trivially obvious to be fair.