On the sectional area of convex polytopes

Abstract

A function f: R → R is unimodal if it increases to a maximum value and then decreases. It is strictly unimodal if the increase and decrease are strict. Unimodality is important for the design of efficient search algorithms because it permits prune-and-search strategies. It also simplifies proofs. An algorithm for R3 is presented which has an application to shape matching. Given convex polygon P and Q and a direction in which to translate P, it is easy to find the translation having maximum overlap with Q in linear time.