Algorithms for orthogonal partitioning into four parts

Abstract

The famous pancake theorem states that for every finite set $X$ in the plane, there exist two orthogonal lines that divide $X$ into four equal parts. We propose an algorithm whose running time is linear in the number of points in $X$ and prove that this complexity is optimal. We also consider generalizations of the pancake theorem and show that orthogonal hyperplanes can be found in polynomial time.