arXiv · 1509.02090
Fair partitioning by straight lines
Abstract
A pizza is a pair of planar convex bodies $A\subseteq B$,where $B$ represents the dough and $A$ the topping of the pizza. A partition of a pizza by straight lines is a succession of double operations:a cut by a full straight line, followed by a Euclidean move of one of theresulting pieces; then the procedure is repeated.The final partition is said to be fair if each resulting slice has the same amount of $A$ and the same amount of $B$.This note proves that, given an integer $n\geq2$, there exists a fair partition by straight lines of any pizza $(A,B)$ into $n$ parts if and onlyif $n$ is even.The proof uses the following result:For any planar convex bodies $A, B$ with $A\subseteq B$, and any$α\in\,]0,\frac12[\,$, there exists an $α$-section of $A$ which is a$β$-section of $B$ for some $β\geqα$. (An $α$-section of $A$ is a straight line cutting $A$ into two parts, one of which has area $α|A|$.)The question remains open if the word "planar" is dropped.
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Augustin Fruchard, Alexander Magazinov. 2015-09-07. Fair partitioning by straight lines. https://arxiv.org/abs/1509.02090
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