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Joseph O'Rourke
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            Lunes http://cs.smith.edu/%7Eorourke/MathOverflow/Lunes.jpgLunes
I believe this is what vlsd must mean by "the intersection of the three lunes." While I'm posting this clarifying (I hope!) image, I'll risk a heuristic argument to support why I think it is "possible to cover the entire sphere using this method":

(1) A region on the sphere is only a fixed point with respect to reflection in the three planes if the three great circles meet in one point. For example, a geodesic equilateral triangle is symmetric with respect to three circles meeting at its centroid, and would be fixed w.r.t. reflection in those three planes. In other words, a shape can only be fixed w.r.t. to three lines of reflection if those lines meet in a point. I assume that vlsd would exclude this degenerate situation (else the three-lune intersection is a point).

(2) Since the region is not a fixed point w.r.t. reflections (if (1) is correct), the only way the process could avoid covering the sphere is if repeated reflections and unions approached a limit shape. But the displacement of points in the reflecting region is lower-bounded by some function of the smallest angle between the planes, so I do not believe this can occur.

I am aware this is not a precise argument!


            Lunes http://cs.smith.edu/%7Eorourke/MathOverflow/Lunes.jpg
I believe this is what vlsd must mean by "the intersection of the three lunes." While I'm posting this clarifying (I hope!) image, I'll risk a heuristic argument to support why I think it is "possible to cover the entire sphere using this method":

(1) A region on the sphere is only a fixed point with respect to reflection in the three planes if the three great circles meet in one point. For example, a geodesic equilateral triangle is symmetric with respect to three circles meeting at its centroid, and would be fixed w.r.t. reflection in those three planes. In other words, a shape can only be fixed w.r.t. to three lines of reflection if those lines meet in a point. I assume that vlsd would exclude this degenerate situation (else the three-lune intersection is a point).

(2) Since the region is not a fixed point w.r.t. reflections (if (1) is correct), the only way the process could avoid covering the sphere is if repeated reflections and unions approached a limit shape. But the displacement of points in the reflecting region is lower-bounded by some function of the smallest angle between the planes, so I do not believe this can occur.

I am aware this is not a precise argument!


            Lunes
I believe this is what vlsd must mean by "the intersection of the three lunes." While I'm posting this clarifying (I hope!) image, I'll risk a heuristic argument to support why I think it is "possible to cover the entire sphere using this method":

(1) A region on the sphere is only a fixed point with respect to reflection in the three planes if the three great circles meet in one point. For example, a geodesic equilateral triangle is symmetric with respect to three circles meeting at its centroid, and would be fixed w.r.t. reflection in those three planes. In other words, a shape can only be fixed w.r.t. to three lines of reflection if those lines meet in a point. I assume that vlsd would exclude this degenerate situation (else the three-lune intersection is a point).

(2) Since the region is not a fixed point w.r.t. reflections (if (1) is correct), the only way the process could avoid covering the sphere is if repeated reflections and unions approached a limit shape. But the displacement of points in the reflecting region is lower-bounded by some function of the smallest angle between the planes, so I do not believe this can occur.

I am aware this is not a precise argument!

Source Link
Joseph O'Rourke
  • 150.8k
  • 36
  • 358
  • 958


            Lunes http://cs.smith.edu/%7Eorourke/MathOverflow/Lunes.jpg
I believe this is what vlsd must mean by "the intersection of the three lunes." While I'm posting this clarifying (I hope!) image, I'll risk a heuristic argument to support why I think it is "possible to cover the entire sphere using this method":

(1) A region on the sphere is only a fixed point with respect to reflection in the three planes if the three great circles meet in one point. For example, a geodesic equilateral triangle is symmetric with respect to three circles meeting at its centroid, and would be fixed w.r.t. reflection in those three planes. In other words, a shape can only be fixed w.r.t. to three lines of reflection if those lines meet in a point. I assume that vlsd would exclude this degenerate situation (else the three-lune intersection is a point).

(2) Since the region is not a fixed point w.r.t. reflections (if (1) is correct), the only way the process could avoid covering the sphere is if repeated reflections and unions approached a limit shape. But the displacement of points in the reflecting region is lower-bounded by some function of the smallest angle between the planes, so I do not believe this can occur.

I am aware this is not a precise argument!