All Questions
65 questions
10
votes
0
answers
1k
views
Interpolating points with minimum curvature constraint
I have $n$ points $p_i$ strictly interior to a rectangle $R$,
and I would like to connect them with a curve $C$ whose curvature is as low as possible.
Let $\kappa_\max(C)$ be the sharpest (largest ...
7
votes
3
answers
377
views
Expected minimum face angle of random convex polyhedron in $\mathbb{R}^3$
Let $P_n$ be a "random convex polyhedron" in $\mathbb{R}^3$ of $n$ vertices, where "random" could follow any one
of a number of models:
(1) the convex hull of $n$ points randomly and uniformly ...
6
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Delaunay triangulations and convex hulls
This is a reference request.
I have the impression that those who work in computational geometry are accustomed to the following. You have some locally finite set of sites in $\mathbb{R}^n$ and you ...
16
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Point sets in Euclidean space with a small number of distinct distances
It is well known and not hard to prove that the regular simplex in n-dimensions is the only way to place n+1 points so that the distance between distinct pairs of points is always the same. My general ...
8
votes
1
answer
885
views
Maximal tetrahedra inscribed in ellipsoid
Pietro Majer quoted the theorem of Michel Chasles in his MO question,
"Convex curves with many inscribed triangles maximizing perimeter,"
which states that the triangles of maximum perimeter inscribed ...
13
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Average degree of contact graph for balls in a box
Imagine you dump congruent, hard, frictionless balls in a box,
letting gravity compress the balls into a stable configuration
(I believe such configurations are called
jammed.)
Assume the box ...
16
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Random polycube shapes
I am wondering if it is hopeless to obtain any firm results
on the following model of a "random polycube shape."
First, a polycube in $\mathbb{R}^3$
is a connected face-to-face gluing of unit cubes.
(...
15
votes
2
answers
737
views
Tiling survey that updates "Tilings and patterns"?
Can anyone suggest a survey (or surveys) that provides an update to Tilings and patterns by Grunbaum and Shepard? If there's a more recent book, that would be fantastic, but I don't see one.
I am ...
10
votes
2
answers
930
views
What is determined by the combinatorics of the shadows of a convex polyhedron?
Define the shadow of a convex polyhedron $P$ in direction $u$
to be the orthogonal projection of $P$ onto a plane whose normal is $u$.
The shadow is a convex $k$-gon.
I am wondering to what degree $P$ ...
8
votes
0
answers
358
views
Coloring toroidal polyhedra with convex faces?
Consider a toroidal polyhedron, which is a topological torus, in which all faces are planar, two faces meet in at most an edge, and adjacent faces are not coplanar. The Szilassi polyhedron has 7 non-...
45
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Pach's "Animals": What if the genus is positive?
Janos Pach asked a deep question 23 years ago (1988) that remains unsolved today:
Can every animal—a topological ball in $\mathbb{R^3}$ composed of unit cubes glued face-to-face—be ...
21
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Forbidden mirror sequences
Let $\cal{M}$ be a finite collection of two-sided mirrors,
each an open unit-length segment in $\mathbb{R^2}$,
and such that the segments when closed are disjoint.
A ray of light that reflects off the ...
21
votes
5
answers
1k
views
Is a rhombus rigid on a sphere or torus? And generalizations
If a rectangle is formed from rigid bars for edges and joints
at vertices, then it is flexible in the plane: it can flex
to a parallelogram.
On any smooth surface with a metric, one can define a ...
7
votes
1
answer
938
views
Which knots' stick numbers are twice their crossing numbers?
Looking at a table of minimum stick numbers for knots (table here),
it seems the known upper bound of $2 c(K)$ in terms of the knot crossing number $c(K)$
is realized by the trefoil $3_1$—it ...
11
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Which (semi)regular polyhedra are combinations of two others?
The convex combination of convex polytopes is a convex polytope.
An example in $\mathbb{R}^2$ is that a regular octagon
can be obtained as $\frac{1}{2} S + \frac{1}{2} S'$,
where $S$ is a square and $...