On the Development of the Intersection of a Plane with a Polytope

Abstract

Define a ``slice'' curve as the intersection of a plane with the surface of a polytope, i.e., a convex polyhedron in three dimensions. We prove that a slice curve develops on a plane without self-intersection. The key tool used is a generalization of Cauchy's arm lemma to permit nonconvex ``openings'' of a planar convex chain.