drspoulsen

I agree that spherical coordinates are not good for the 3D onion. In the slides I linked, I use cylindrical coordinates with appropriate bounds to encompass the problem within a sphere.

I've thought about this. Unfortunately, everything I have tried (changing dimensions and layers, for example) has not yielded anything. This is still something one could explore, though!

Another onion enthusiast has sent me python code that considers finite-layer onions, and that code will be featured in the upcoming journal article.

The two cases this solution generalizes are the vertical and radial cut method, which both aim towards a single point (you can think of the vertical method as aiming to a point infinitely far beneath the center of the onion). There may be other more optimal ways (cutting each layer individually for example), but they are not conducive to an ultimately simple strategy.

Hi everyone, the author of the blog here. I'm glad to see the interest here on this piece!

I have slides that detail the problem setup and the mathematics, as well as a consideration of three-dimensional onions, here: https://drspoulsen.github.io/Onion_Marp/index.html

I have submitted a formal write-up of the details of the problem and the solution to a recreational mathematics journal.

I'm also happy to answer any questions about this!