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6 votes
1 answer
393 views

Recovering a polyhedron from its tumble-density profile

Imagine a white convex polyhedron $P$ tumbling randomly about its fixed center of gravity (c.g.) $c$ against a blue background. A long-exposure photo would show pure white in a neighborhood of $c$ (...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
17 votes
3 answers
2k views

Optimal 8-vertex isoperimetric polyhedron?

I know from Marcel Berger's Geometry Revealed: A Jacob's Ladder to Modern Higher Geometry (p.531) that it is not yet established which polyhedron in $\mathbb{R}^3$ on 8 vertices achieves the optimal ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
1k views

Regular polygon shadows of convex polyhedra

Fix a finite subset $S$ of the natural numbers $\mathbb{N}$, each element $\ge 3$. Is there a convex polyhedron $P$ that has among its shadows regular $n$-gons for each $n \in S$? Does such a $P$...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
17 votes
1 answer
1k views

Totally rational polytopes

Define a convex polytope in $\mathbb{R}^d$ as totally rational (my terminology) if its vertex coordinates are rational, its edge lengths are rational, its two-dimensional face areas are rational, etc.,...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
5 votes
4 answers
763 views

Parametrizing the realization space of a polyhedron by its edges

I alluded to this here, but at that point I hadn't really done enough work to know what I wanted to ask. Call a polyhedron "trihedral" if three faces meet at each vertex. Each of the F faces can be ...
Robin Saunders's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
256 views

Polar interpretation of convexity

Let $C$ be a convex polygon in the plane containing the origin, and let $r(\theta)$ for $\theta\in[0,2\pi)$ be a parametrization of its boundary. Is there a condition on $r$ that is equivalent to (or ...
Jennifer Gao's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
643 views

A convex polyhedral analog of the pentagram map

I am wondering if there is a three-dimensional analog of the pentagram map, which maps a convex polygon to another convex polygon. Here's the Wikipedia image: I am seeking something similar that maps ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
3k views

intersection of convex and non-convex polyhedra

I am trying to find the best appropriate way to intersect polyhedra which may be non-convex. The number of vertices that build the polyhedron is hence always small (up to 20 or so). The ...
tmaric's user avatar
  • 143
21 votes
5 answers
1k views

Is there a midsphere theorem for 4-polytopes?

The (remarkable) midsphere theorem says that each combinatorial type of convex polyhedron may be realized by one all of whose edges are tangent to a sphere (and the realization is unique if the center ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
626 views

Embed the intersection of an n-dimensional unit $L_1$ sphere and a hyperplane into an (n-1)-dimensional unit $L_1$ sphere.

In $\mathbb{R}^n$, given an unit $L_1$ sphere $\mathcal{B}_n: |x_1|+|x_2|+\ldots+|x_n|\leq 1$ and a hyperplane $\mathcal{P}: a_1x_1+a_2x_2+\ldots+a_nx_n=0$. Does there always exist a rotation such ...
Chao Li's user avatar
  • 59
9 votes
1 answer
523 views

The volume of the “unit ball” in $\mathbb{R}^{m\times n}$ with respect to the cut norm

This question is inspired by the question “ε-nets with respect to the cut norm” by the user Aaron, which had been reposted to cstheory.stackexchange.com. The cut norm ||A||C of a matrix A=(aij)∈ℝm×n ...
Tsuyoshi Ito's user avatar
  • 1,959
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 $P$ ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
58 votes
14 answers
19k views

Open problems in Euclidean geometry?

What are some (research level) open problems in Euclidean geometry ? (Edit: I ask just out of curiosity, to understand how -and if- nowadays this is not a "dead" field yet) I should clarify a bit ...
8 votes
1 answer
673 views

Estimating the Volume of the Metric Polytope

A metric on $n$ points $N$ can be represented as a vector $x \in \mathbb{R}_+^{n \choose 2}$. For each pair of distinct $i, j \in N$, we have $d(i,j) = d(j,i) = x_{i,j}$. The set of all metrics is ...
Aaron's user avatar
  • 794
8 votes
2 answers
383 views

Do singular values of a point set determine its shape?

Suppose I have $k$ points in $d$ dimensions. Let A be a $k\times d$ matrix with $i$th row giving the coordinates of $i$th point. Do singular values of this matrix have an interpretation as some kind ...
Yaroslav Bulatov's user avatar
45 votes
1 answer
3k views

two tetrahedra in $\mathbb R^4$

It is relatively easy to show (see below) that if we have two equilateral triangles of side 1 in $\mathbb R^3$, such that their union has diameter $1,$ then they must share a vertex. I wonder whether ...
filipm's user avatar
  • 1,359
3 votes
3 answers
390 views

Can we uniquely define a graph to have the topology of a polytope via proper edge length selection?

I'll ask you to consider a situation wherein one has a series of edges for a graph, $(e_1, e_2, ..., e_N) \in E$, each with a specifiable length $(l_1, l_2, ..., l_N) \in L$, and the goal is to insure ...
ShallowBlue's user avatar
63 votes
8 answers
14k views

Fair but irregular polyhedral dice

I am interested in determining a collection of geometric conditions that will guarantee that a convex polyhedron of $n$ faces is a fair die in the sense that, upon random rolling, it has an equal $1/n$...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
18 votes
3 answers
2k views

Are the Platonic solids shadows of 4-polytopes?

Say that a 3D shadow of a 4-polytope is a parallel projection to 3-space, not necessarily orthogonal to that 3-space (that would make it an orthogonal projection). I am wondering if each of the five ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
11 votes
2 answers
2k views

How many non-equivalent sections of a regular 7-simplex?

Suppose we have a regular 7-simplex in $\mathbb{R}^8$ defined by vertices <1,0,0,...,0>, <0,1,0,..,0>,...,<0,...,0,1>. A section is a 3-dimensional linear subspace of $\mathbb{R}^8$ that ...
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 $...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
715 views

Elementary problem about triangles inside a convex polygon

Let P be a convex polygon with area A(P), and to each side of P, attach the largest area triangle possible that lies entirely within P. Must the sum S(P) of the areas of these triangles always satisfy ...
Eric Tressler's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
375 views

Connections between a polytope's symmetry group and the existence of periodic orbits

Given an $n$-dimensional convex polytope $P$, one may set into motion a point-mass, starting on one of the facets of $P$, which travels along a straight trajectory inside $P$ except on collision with ...
Zach Conn's user avatar
  • 269
16 votes
5 answers
1k views

A characterization of convexity

While doing some research on polytopes I came to the following question. Maybe it's already somewhere but anyway I'll post it here. Let $X\subset \mathbb{R}^3$ be such that, for every plane $P$, $P\...
Cristos A. Ruiz's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
556 views

A variation on "Hearing the shape of a drum" for polytopes.

Let $\varphi:\mathcal S^{d-1}\longrightarrow \mathbb R_{>0}$ be a strictly positive function describing the boundary $\varphi(\mathbf x)\mathbf x,\mathbf x\in\mathbb S^{d-1}$ of a $d-$dimensional ...
Roland Bacher's user avatar
8 votes
3 answers
1k views

Area of cross-section (at midpoint perpendicular to longest diagonal) in the unit cube of dimension N

Take a unit cube (of side 1) in N dimensions. Construct the cross-section at the midpoint of the longest diagonal. What is the area of this N-1 dimensional region? I can compute this, but it would be ...
Ila Fiete's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
419 views

Is the direction of the longest line of a polytope unique?

The question pertains to a polytope that is generated by the intersection of an affine subspace with a hypercube in $p$ dimensions. The affine subspace is given by: $X \mbox{ u} = y$ where $u$ &...
some_random_guy's user avatar
26 votes
7 answers
10k views

Uniformly Sampling from Convex Polytopes

How to choose a point uniformly from a convex polytope $P \subset [0,1]^n$ defined by some inequalities, $Ax < b$? (Here $A$ is an $m \times n$ matrix, $x \in \mathbb{R}^n$, and $b \in \mathbb{R}^...
john mangual's user avatar
  • 22.8k
8 votes
6 answers
1k views

Combinatorial distance ≡ Euclidean distance

Definition: A polytope has property X iff there is a function f:N+ → R+ such that for each pair of vertices vi, vj the following holds: disteuclidean(vi, vj) = f(distcombinatorial(vi, vj)) with ...
Hans-Peter Stricker's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
439 views

Convex n-polytope general position vectors to general position vectors of tetrahedron

I asked this question in a comment to this question, but got no response. I thought that perhaps it needed more exposure, so I made it a question in itself. Define a set of general position vectors $...
B. Bischof's user avatar
  • 4,842
4 votes
2 answers
3k views

Break polyhedron into tetrahedron

Given a polyhedron consists of a list of vertices (v), a list of edges (e), and a list of surfaces connecting those edges (...
Graviton's user avatar
  • 381
18 votes
1 answer
644 views

Egalitarian measures

A question I got asked I while ago: If $T$ is a triangle in $\mathbb R^2$, is there a function $f:T\to\mathbb R$ such that the integral of $f$ over each straight segment connecting two points in the ...
Mariano Suárez-Álvarez's user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
846 views

What is known about polyhedra nets that allow overlapping?

It is an open problem that the net of any convex polyhedron can be unfolded onto a flat plane with no overlapping. Is anything known if we allow x faces to overlap? For example, is it known if any ...
Jason Dyer's user avatar
  • 2,615
3 votes
3 answers
311 views

Are there infinite sets of stellations of polyhedra?

Lists of stellations of polyhedrons are given particular rules like in the book The Fifty Nine Icosahedra which follows "Miller's Rules". There seems to be no "correct" ruleset to use, so more ...
Jason Dyer's user avatar
  • 2,615
44 votes
11 answers
26k views

Algorithm for finding the volume of a convex polytope

It's easy to find the area of a convex polygon by division into triangles, but what is the optimal way of finding the volume of higher-dimensional convex bodies? I tried a few methods for dividing ...
Xerxes's user avatar
  • 441

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