algorithm design techniques dc dl dr figure partitioned into pl and pr shortest distances are shown in figure implements this strategyassuming the +convention that the points are indexed starting at in the worst caseall the points could be in the stripso this strategy does not always work in linear time we can improve this algorithm with the following observationthe coordinates of the two points that define dc can differ by at most otherwisedc suppose that the points in the strip are sorted by their coordinates thereforeif pi and pj ' dl dr figure two-lane stripcontaining all points considered for dc strip