All Questions
4,825 questions
25
votes
3
answers
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Angle of a regular simplex
I find the following question embarrassing, but I have not been able to either resolve it, or to find a reference.
What is the vertex angle of a regular $n$-simplex?
Background: For a vertex $v$ ...
- 7,836
25
votes
3
answers
945
views
Are there arbitrarily large families of lines in $\Bbb R^3$ with average angle $\ge \pi/3$?
Question: Can I have an arbitrarily large finite family of lines $\ell_1,\dotsc,\ell_n\subset\Bbb R^3$ so that the average angle between two (distinct) lines is $\ge \pi/3$?
We can assume that all ...
- 13.6k
25
votes
6
answers
2k
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Are there infinitely many "generalized triangle vertices"?
Briefly, I'd like to know whether there are infinitely many "generalized triangle centers" which - like the orthocenter - are indistinguishable from a vertex of the original triangle. This ...
- 21.2k
25
votes
1
answer
3k
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A gerrymandering problem - can you always turn a tie into a landslide victory?
Note: Here we use $|A|$ to denote the Lebesgue measure of a measurable subset $A$ of $\mathbb R^2$.
Your party is running for election! In your country, voters are approximately uniformly distributed. ...
- 6,155
25
votes
2
answers
2k
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An Interesting Optimization Problem
You are given n non-negative integers $a_1, a_2 ,, a_n$. In a single operation, you take any two integers out of these integers and replace them with a new integer having value equal to difference ...
- 363
25
votes
1
answer
842
views
Alternate proofs that hyperbolic plane can’t be isometrically immersed in $\mathbb{R}^3$
A famous theorem of Hilbert says that there is no smooth immersion of the hyperbolic plane in 3-dimensional Euclidean space. The expositions of this that I know of (in eg do Carmo’s book on curves/...
- 251
25
votes
1
answer
513
views
Is there an inventory of closed billiard paths in a regular tetrahedron?
Conway found a closed billiard-ball trajectory in a regular tetrahedron:
Image: Izidor Hafner
Since then Bedaride and Rao
Bedaride, Nicolas, and Michael Rao. "Regular simplices and periodic ...
- 151k
25
votes
1
answer
7k
views
Hanging a ball with string
What is the shortest length of string that suffices to hang
a unit-radius ball $B$?
This question is related to an earlier MO question, but I think different.
Assume that the ball is frictionless.
...
- 151k
25
votes
3
answers
2k
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Is the Ford-Fulkerson algorithm a tropical rational function?
The Ford-Fulkerson algorithm
Let me recall the standard scenario of flow optimization (for integer flows at least):
Let $\mathbb{N} = \left\{0,1,2,\ldots\right\}$. Consider a digraph $D$ with vertex ...
- 33.8k
24
votes
3
answers
3k
views
Polyomino that can cover an arbitrarily large square but not the entire plane
https://userpages.monmouth.com/~colonel/nrectcover/index.html
For a polyomino with no holes that cannot tile the plane, we may ask what are the maximal rectangles and infinite strips that it can ...
- 359
24
votes
8
answers
4k
views
When does a metric space have "infinite metric dimension"? (Definition of metric dimension)
Definition 1 A subset $B$ of a metric space $(M,d)$ is called a metric basis for $M$ if and only if $$[\forall b \in B,\,d(x,b)=d(y,b)] \implies x = y \,.$$
Definition 2 A metric space $(M,d)$ has &...
- 2,680
24
votes
5
answers
4k
views
Weitzenböck Identities
I asked this question at Maths Stack Exchange, but I haven't received any replies yet (I'm not sure how long I should wait before it is acceptable to ask here, assuming there is such a period of time)....
- 19.3k
24
votes
3
answers
3k
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Can a unit square be cut into rectangles that tile a rectangle with irrational sides?
For arbitrary positive integers $m$ and $n$, if we dissect a unit square into an $m\times n$ rectangular grid of $1/m\times 1/n$ rectangles, we can reassemble these $mn$ rectangles into an $n/m\times ...
- 2,437
24
votes
3
answers
1k
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Tetrahedron insphere iteration
I know that iterating the following incircle construction approaches an equilateral triangle in the limit:
Starting with any triangle $T$, one forms $T'$ by connecting ...
- 151k
24
votes
3
answers
1k
views
"Paradoxes" in $\mathbb{R}^n$
One may think of this question as a duplicate of this one. I see it more like an extension.
The "inscribed sphere paradox" discussed in the aforementioned question states that if you inscribe a ...
- 800
24
votes
2
answers
3k
views
How can you compute the maximum volume of an envelope(used to enclose a letter)?
It's obvious that the volume of a envelope is 0 when flat and non-0 when you open it up. However, if you were to fill it with liquid, there must be some shape where it has a maximum volume. Is there a ...
- 351
24
votes
1
answer
770
views
Given a group action on a simplex, can I always find a fundamental region that is a simplex?
Let $\Delta\subset\Bbb R^n$ be a simplex with $n+1$ vertices. Let $G\subset\mathrm{GL}(\Bbb R^n)$ be a finite group of linear symmetries of $\Delta$, i.e. linear transformations that fix the simplex ...
- 13.6k
24
votes
4
answers
2k
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A reinterpretation of the $abc$ - conjecture in terms of metric spaces?
I hope it is appropriate to ask this question here:
One formulation of the abc-conjecture is
$$ c < \text{rad}(abc)^2$$
where $\gcd(a,b)=1$ and $c=a+b$. This is equivalent to ($a,b$ being ...
user6671
24
votes
3
answers
3k
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Integer-distance sets
Let $S$ be a set of points in $\mathbb{R}^d$; I am especially interested in $d=2$.
Say that $S$ is an integer-distance set if every pair of points in $S$ is separated
by an integer Euclidean distance.
...
- 151k
24
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Non-regular Connected Hausdorff Banach Manifold
After reading this MO post, I am wondering:
Is every (connected) Hausdorff Banach manifold a regular space?
Though unjustified, page 53 of this paper nonchalantly states: "Note that a Hausdorff ...
- 7,831
24
votes
2
answers
754
views
Expected number of vertices of a hypercube slice -- is this new/interesting?
I am a (mostly) amateur mathematician, but my education and work have featured a lot of mathematics, and recently I bumped into a mathematical problem for which I can find no references, and I am ...
- 241
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1
answer
1k
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Which unfoldings of the $d$-dimensional hypercube tile $(d{-}1)$-space?
A six year old question,
Which unfoldings of the hypercube tile $3$-space?, has just been answered by
Moritz Firsching:
All $261$ unfoldings tile space!
So now we know:
For $d=2$, the unfolding of ...
- 151k
23
votes
12
answers
15k
views
Textbook for undergraduate course in geometry
I've been assigned to teach our undergraduate course in geometry next semester. This course originally was intended for future high-school teachers and focused on axiomatic, Euclid-style geometry (...
23
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Can we make distances in a finite subset of a manifold whatever we want?
Given a connected smooth manifold $M$ of dimension $m>1$, points $p_1,\dots,p_n\in M$ and positive values $\{d_{i,j};1\leq i<j\leq n\}$ satisfying the strict triangle inequalities $d_{i,j}<d_{...
- 10.6k
23
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Is there a neat formula for the volume of a tetrahedron on $S^3$?
There is a nice formula for the area of a triangle on the 2-dimensional sphere;
If the triangle is the intersection of three half spheres, and has angles $\alpha$, $\beta$ and $\gamma$, and we ...
- 435
23
votes
6
answers
2k
views
Is there a topological description of combinatorial Euler characteristic?
There are a collection of definitions of "combinatorial Euler characteristic", which is different from the "homotopy Euler characteristic". I will describe a few of them and give some references, and ...
- 54.6k
23
votes
3
answers
1k
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Gromov-Hausdorff limits of 2-dimensional Riemannian surfaces
Let $\{M_i\}$ be a sequence of 2-dimensional orientable closed surfaces of genus $g$ with smooth Riemannian metrics with the Gauss curvature at least $-1$ and diameter at most $D$. By the Gromov ...
- 21.8k
23
votes
4
answers
3k
views
Intrinsic metric with no geodesics
It seems that I have the needed example, but I want it to be simple and self-explaining...
Construct a nontrivial complete metric space $X$ with intrinsic metric which has no nontrivial minimizing ...
- 45k
23
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Rolling-ball game
The analyses
in two recent MO questions
("recent" with respect to the original posting in 2011),
"Rolling a random walk on a sphere"
and
"Maneuvering with limited moves on $S^2$,"
suggest a Rolling-...
- 151k
23
votes
4
answers
5k
views
De Rham decomposition theorem, generalisations and good references
De Rham decomposition theorem states that every simply-connected Riemannian manifold $M$
that admits complementary sub-bundles $T'(M)$ and $T''(M)$ of its tangent bundle parallel with respect to the ...
- 28.9k
23
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Does a Riemannian manifold have a triangulation with quantitative bounds?
Suppose that $M$ is a closed Riemannian manifold with bounded geometry, i.e., curvature between $-1$ and $1$ and injectivity radius at least $1$. Since $M$ is a smooth manifold, it has a ...
- 1,100
23
votes
3
answers
868
views
Best Hölder exponents of surjective maps from the unit square to the unit cube
The Peano's square-filling curve $p:I\to I^2$ turn's out to be Hölder continuous with exponent $1/2$ on the unit interval $I$ (a quick way to see it, is to note that $p$ is a fixed point of a ...
- 60.5k
23
votes
1
answer
524
views
Tying knots via gravity-assisted spaceship trajectories
Q.
Can every knot be realized as the trajectory of a spaceship
weaving among a finite number of fixed planets, subject to gravity alone?
To make this more ...
- 151k
23
votes
0
answers
1k
views
Boundaries of noncompact contractible manifolds
It is known that a manifold $B$ bounds a compact contractible topological manifold if and only if $B$ is a homology sphere. The "only if" direction follows by excising a small ball in the interior of ...
- 29.1k
22
votes
15
answers
7k
views
Geodesics on the sphere
In a few days I will be giving a talk to (smart) high-school students on a topic which includes a brief overview on the notions of curvature and of gedesic lines. As an example, I will discuss flight ...
- 3,749
22
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Non-chaotic bouncing-ball curves
I was surprised to learn from two
Mathematica Demos by
Enrique Zeleny that an elastic ball bouncing in a V or in a sinusoidal channel
exhibits chaotic behavior:
(The Poincaré map ...
- 151k
22
votes
5
answers
3k
views
Unexpected applications of Dvoretzky's theorem
Dvoretzky's theorem is a classic of convex geometry. Recently at a conference in quantum information I learned (from Patrick Hayden's talk) about a nontrivial application of the theorem to a problem ...
- 2,449
22
votes
5
answers
3k
views
How does one find the "loneliest person on the planet"?
I'm looking for the algorithm that efficiently locates the "loneliest person on the planet", where "loneliest" is defined as:
Maximum minimum distance to another person — that is, ...
- 331
22
votes
4
answers
3k
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What is the analog of the "Fundamental Theorem of Space Curves," for surfaces, and beyond?
The "Fundamental Theorem of Space Curves"
(Wikipedia link; MathWorld link)
states that there is a unique (up to congruence)
curve in space that simultaneously realizes
given continuous curvature $\...
- 151k
22
votes
5
answers
2k
views
Which norms have rich isometry groups?
Let $n \ge 2$ be some positive integer. Given a norm $p : \mathbb{R}^n \to \mathbb{R}$, one can inquire about the structure and properties of its isometry group, i.e. the group of all bijections $F:\...
- 4,874
22
votes
1
answer
1k
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Does greedy circle packing exhaust the measure of every bounded open set in the plane?
The greedy circle packing of a bounded region in the plane is the result of placing at each stage the largest possible disk into the region that remains uncovered.
The greedy circle packing of a ...
- 236k
22
votes
6
answers
2k
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Does every ellipse inside a tetrahedron inside a ball fit in a triangle inside the ball?
In three-dimensional euclidean space, consider the closed unit ball $B$. Let $T$ be a tetrahedron, and $E$ an ellipse, with $E \subset T \subset B$. Does there necessarily exist a triangle $T'$ with $...
- 321
22
votes
2
answers
1k
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Do the elementary properties of mixed volume characterize it uniquely?
Background
Take 2 convex sets in $\mathbb{R}^2$, or 3 convex sets in $\mathbb{R}^3$, or generally, $n$ convex sets in $\mathbb{R}^n$. "Mixed volume" assigns to such a family $A_1, \ldots, A_n$ a ...
- 27.7k
22
votes
1
answer
696
views
Rational inscribed realization of the regular dodecahedron
While it is clear that the regular dodecahedron $D$ cannot be realized with all integer coordinates, it is easy to find a polytope, which is combinatorially equivalent (face lattice isomorphic) to $D$ ...
- 10.7k
22
votes
2
answers
3k
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Missing document request
I received a request for another long-lost document:
I am wondering if there is any way I
might obtain a copy of
The geometry of circles: Voronoi
diagrams, Moebius transformations,
...
- 25.1k
22
votes
2
answers
900
views
Is every 1-million-connected graph rigid in 3D?
It is an old result that every $6$-connected graph is rigid in $\mathbb{R}^2$:
Lovász, László, and Yechiam Yemini. "On generic rigidity in the plane." SIAM Journal on Algebraic Discrete ...
- 151k
22
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Minimal surface in a ball
Assume a minimal surface $\Sigma$ has boundary on the unit sphere in the Euclidean space
and $r$ is the distance from $\Sigma$ to the center of the ball.
Is it true that
$$\mathop{\rm area} \Sigma\ge ...
22
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Equilaterally triangulated surfaces with prescribed boundary
There is a problem in Richard Kenyon's list (Wayback Machine) which I would like to post here, because although I have thought about it from time to time, I have not been able to make the slightest ...
- 7,149
22
votes
2
answers
2k
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Is every elementary absolute geometry Euclidean or hyperbolic?
Absolute geometry is any one that satisfies Hilbert's axioms of plane geometry without the axiom of parallels. It is well-known that it is either the Euclidean or a hyperbolic plane. For an elementary ...
- 1,731
22
votes
1
answer
1k
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Is the metric completion of a Riemannian manifold always a geodesic space?
A length space is a metric space $X$, where the distance between two points is the infimum of the lengths of curves joining them. The length of a curve $c: [0,1] \rightarrow X$ is the sup of
$$ d(c(0),...
- 27.5k