Question 14.49
19. The three friends who bought the pearls (see Exercise 8 on page 614) ask you to suggest a different apportionment method to distribute their purchase. Before answering, determine the apportionments given by the Jefferson and Webster methods for the 36- and 37-pearl house sizes, and then make your suggestion.
19.
The Jefferson and Webster methods give identical apportionments for 36 or 37 pearls: With 36 pearls, Abe gets 14, Beth gets 19, and Charles gets 3. The 37th pearl is awarded to Abe. Although the Jefferson and Webster methods yield the same result, that does not mean that they are right. If there is a principle on which to choose a method, it would probably be to choose the method by which the cost per pearl is as close as possible to the same for each of the friends. The cost per pearl is the district size, so they should use the Dean method (see Exercise 48 and Writing Project 2), which minimizes absolute differences in district size. Charles might want to study up on it, because it allocates the 37th pearl to him!