A Polynomial Solution For Potato-Peeling And Other Polygon Inclusion And Enclosure Problems

Abstract

We give a finiteness criteria for the potato-peeling problem that asks for the largest convex Polygon ('Potato') contained inside a given simple polygon, answering a question of J. Goodman. This leads to a polynomial-time, solution of O(n/sup 9/log n). The techniques used turn out to be useful for other cases of what we call the polygon inclusion and enclosure problem. For instance, the largest perimeter potato can be found in O(n/sup 6/) time and finding the smallest k-gon enclosing a given polygon can be done in O(n/sup 3/log k) steps.