In the excellent book by W.G. Chinn, N.E. Steenrod "First Concepts of Topology" the theorem is proved which states that any bounded planar region can be cut into 4 regions of equal area by 2 perpendicular cuts (the pancake problem). This is an existence theorem which does not provide any way to find these cuts. In this post I made an attempt to find such cuts for any convex region on the plane bounded by a piecewise smooth self-non-intersecting curve.
The Into_4_Equal_Areas procedure returns a list of coordinates of 5 points: the first 4 points are the endpoints of the cutting segments, the fifth point is the intersection point of these segments. This procedure significantly uses my old procedure Area , which can be found in detail at the link https://mapleprimes.com/posts/145922-Perimeter-Area-And-Visualization-Of-A-Plane-Figure- . The formal argument of the Into_4_Equal_Areas procedure is a list L specifying the boundary of the region to be cut. When specifying L, the boundary can be passed clockwise or counterclockwise, but it is necessary that the parameter t (when specifying each link) should go in ascending order. This can always be achieved by replacing t with -t if necessary. The Pic procedure draws a picture of the source region and cutting segments. For ease of use, the code for the Area procedure is also provided. It is also worth noting that the procedure also works for "not too" non-convex regions (see examples below).
restart;
Area := proc(L)
local i, var, e, e1, e2, P;
for i to nops(L) do
if type(L[i], listlist(algebraic)) then
P[i] := (1/2)*add(L[i, j, 1]*L[i, j+1, 2]-L[i, j, 2]*L[i, j+1, 1], j = 1 .. nops(L[i])-1) else
var := lhs(L[i, 2]);
if type(L[i, 1], algebraic) then e := L[i, 1];
if nops(L[i]) = 3 then P[i] := (1/2)*(int(e^2, L[i, 2])) else
if var = y then P[i] := (1/2)*simplify(int(e-var*(diff(e, var)), L[i, 2])) else
P[i] := (1/2)*simplify(int(var*(diff(e, var))-e, L[i, 2])) end if end if else e1 := L[i, 1, 1]; e2 := L[i, 1, 2];
P[i] := (1/2)*simplify(int(e1*(diff(e2, var))-e2*(diff(e1, var)), L[i, 2])) end if end if end do;
abs(add(P[i], i = 1 .. nops(L)));
end proc:
Into_4_Equal_Areas:=proc(L::list,N::symbol:='OneSolution', eps::numeric:=0)
local D, n, c, L1, L2, L3, f, L0, i, j, k, m, A, B, C, P, S, sol, Sol;
f:=(X,Y)->expand((y-X[2])*(Y[1]-X[1])-(x-X[1])*(Y[2]-X[2]));
L0:=map(p->`if`(type(p,listlist),[[p[1,1]+t*(p[2]-p[1])[1],p[1,2]+t*(p[2]-p[1])[2]],t=0..1],p), L);
S:=Area(L); c:=0;
n:=nops(L);
for i from 1 to n do
for j from i to n do
for k from j to n do
for m from k to n do
if not ((nops({i,j,k})=1 and type(L[i],listlist)) or (nops({j,k,m})=1 and type(L[j],listlist)))then
A:=convert(subs(t=t1,L0[i,1]),Vector):
B:=convert(subs(t=t2,L0[j,1]),Vector):
C:=convert(subs(t=t3,L0[k,1]),Vector):
D:=convert(subs(t=t4,L0[m,1]),Vector):
P:=eval([x,y], solve({f(A,C),f(B,D)},{x,y})):
L1:=`if`(j=i,[subsop([2,2]=t1..t2,L0[i]),[convert(B,list),P],[P,convert(A,list)]],`if`(j=i+1,[subsop([2,2]=t1..op([2,2,2],L0[i]),L0[i]),subsop([2,2]=op([2,2,1],L0[j])..t2,L0[j]),[convert(B,list),P],[P,convert(A,list)]], [subsop([2,2]=t1..op([2,2,2],L0[i]),L0[i]),L0[i+1..j-1][],subsop([2,2]=op([2,2,1],L0[j])..t2,L0[j]),[convert(B,list),P],[P,convert(A,list)]])):
L2:=`if`(k=j,[subsop([2,2]=t2..t3,L0[j]),[convert(C,list),P],[P,convert(B,list)]],`if`(k=j+1,[subsop([2,2]=t2..op([2,2,2],L0[j]),L0[j]),subsop([2,2]=op([2,2,1],L0[k])..t3,L0[k]),[convert(C,list),P],[P,convert(B,list)]], [subsop([2,2]=t2..op([2,2,2],L0[j]),L0[j]),L0[j+1..k-1][],subsop([2,2]=op([2,2,1],L0[k])..t3,L0[k]),[convert(C,list),P],[P,convert(B,list)]])):
L3:=`if`(m=k,[subsop([2,2]=t3..t4,L0[k]),[convert(D,list),P],[P,convert(C,list)]],`if`(m=k+1,[subsop([2,2]=t3..op([2,2,2],L0[k]),L0[k]),subsop([2,2]=op([2,2,1],L0[m])..t4,L0[m]),[convert(D,list),P],[P,convert(C,list)]], [subsop([2,2]=t3..op([2,2,2],L0[k]),L0[k]),L0[k+1..m-1][],subsop([2,2]=op([2,2,1],L0[m])..t4,L0[m]),[convert(D,list),P],[P,convert(C,list)]])):
sol:=fsolve({Area(L1)-S/4,Area(L2)-S/4,Area(L3)-S/4,LinearAlgebra:-DotProduct(D-B,C-A, conjugate=false)},{t1=op([2,2,1],L0[i])-eps..op([2,2,2],L0[i])+eps,t2=op([2,2,1],L0[j])-eps..op([2,2,2],L0[j])+eps,t3=op([2,2,1],L0[k])-eps..op([2,2,2],L0[k])+eps,t4=op([2,2,1],L0[m])-eps..op([2,2,2],L0[m])+eps}) assuming real:
if type(sol,set(`=`)) then if N='OneSolution' then return convert~(eval([A,B,C,D,P],sol),list) else c:=c+1; Sol[c]:=convert~(eval([A,B,C,D,P],sol),list) fi;
fi; fi;
od: od: od: od:
convert(Sol,list);
end proc:
Pic:=proc(L,Sol)
local P1, P2, T;
uses plots, plottools;
P1:=seq(`if`(type(s,listlist),line(s[],color=blue, thickness=2),plot([s[1][],s[2]],color=blue, thickness=2)),s=L):
P2:=line(Sol[1],Sol[3],color=red, thickness=2), line(Sol[2],Sol[4],color=red):
T:=textplot([[Sol[1][],"A"],[Sol[2][],"B"],[Sol[3][],"C"],[Sol[4][],"D"],[Sol[5][],"P"]], font=[times,18], align=[left,above]);
display(P1,P2,T, scaling=constrained, size=[800,500], axes=none);
end proc:
Examples of use:
L:=[[[0,0],[1,4]],[[1,4],[6,7]],[[6,7],[12,0]],[[12,0],[0,0]]]:
Sol:=Into_4_Equal_Areas(L);
Pic(L, Sol);
# Check (areas of all 4 regions)
Area([[L[1,1],Sol[4],Sol[5],Sol[1],L[1,1]]]),
Area([[Sol[4],Sol[5],Sol[3],L[4,1],Sol[4]]]),
Area([[Sol[5],Sol[2],L[3,1],Sol[3],Sol[5]]]),
Area([[Sol[5],Sol[2],L[1,2],Sol[1],Sol[5]]]);
L:=[[[1+cos(-t),1+sin(-t)],t=-3*Pi/2..-Pi],[[0,1],[-1,0]],[[cos(t),sin(t)],t=Pi..2*Pi]]:
Sol:=Into_4_Equal_Areas(L);
Pic(L,Sol);
# The boundary is the Archimedes spiral and the arc of a circle
L:=[[[t*cos(t),t*sin(t)],t=0..2*Pi],[[Pi+5*cos(-t),sqrt(25-Pi^2)+5*sin(-t)],t=arccos(Pi/5)..Pi-arccos(Pi/5)]]:
Sol:=evalf(Into_4_Equal_Areas(L));
Pic(L,Sol);
L:=[[[0,0],[2,0]],[[2,0],[1,sqrt(3)]],[[1,sqrt(3)],[0,0]]]:
Sol:=evalf[5](Into_4_Equal_Areas(L, AllSolutions, 0.1)); # All 3 solutions
plots:-display(<Pic(L, Sol[1]) | Pic(L, Sol[2]) | Pic(L, Sol[3])>, size=[300,300]);
L:=[[[-t,-sin(-t)],t=-5*Pi/4..0],[[cos(t),sin(t)-1],t=Pi/2..3*Pi/2],[[t,cos(t)-3],t=0..3*Pi/2],[[3*Pi/2,-3],[5*Pi/4,sqrt(2)/2]]]:
Sol:=evalf(Into_4_Equal_Areas(L));
Pic(L,Sol);
More examples can be found in the attached file.
4_Equal_Area1.mw
[Edit]. The post has been edited. One inaccuracy in the code has been corrected, which could sometimes lead to errors. Two options have been added to the code of Into_4_Equal_Areas procedure. The first option is the formal argument N . If N=OneSolution (by default), the procedure returns one solution. If N=AllSolutions , the procedure returns all solutions that it can find. The eps option has also been added (by default, eps=0). It is advisable to use it when we are looking for all solutions, and the ends of the cutting segments fall on the boundaries of intervals (this option slightly expands the boundaries of intervals, otherwise the fsolve command sometimes misses solutions). Two new examples have also been added.
