Computing a Ham-Sandwich Cut in Two Dimensions

Let B be a set of n"b black points and W a set of n"w, white points in the Euclidean plane. A line h is said to bisect B (or W) if, at most, half of the points of B (or W) lie on any one side of h. A line that bisects both B and W is called a ham-sandwich cut of B and W. We give an algorithm that computes a ham-sandwich cut of B and W in 0((n"h+n"w) log (min {n"b, n"w}+ 1)) time. The algorithm is considerably simpler than the previous most efficient one which takes 0((n"b + n"w) log (n"b + n"w)) time.