I am reading about the problem of cutting/coloring a plane using 2 colors black/white. The problem states:
A number of straight lines are drawn across a piece of paper and each
line extends all the way from one border to another. As a result the
paper is divided into regions. Show that it is possible to color
each region black or white so that no adjacent regions have the same
color
The proof is given using induction on the number of lines and inversion of colors of one of the segments created per new line and is understood.
What I don't understand is the following.
The proof states that (emphasis mine):
The requirement for the solution is that the lines are straight i.e.
intersect in a single point. If the lines are not straight and the
intersect in a segment of a line, inverting the colors of one of the
two regions does not guarantee that the coloring of adjacent regions
at the boundary of the left and right regions is satisfactory.
What is meant by lines intersecting in a segment of a line? Trying it out with 2 lines that are curved and intersecting in 2 points it seems the solution would still hold. So does it mean the lines are overlapping?
Best Answer
The problem is if the line segments overlap in some configuration that is more than just a finite set of distinct points:
In this image, the blue and red curves overlap along the purple segment, forming 4 regions which cannot be colored in the desired manner.