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9 votes
2 answers
321 views

Is a polytope that has in-spheres for faces of all dimensions already regular?

Let $P\subset\Bbb R^d$ be a convex polytope (convex hull of finitely many points). A $k$-in-sphere of $P$ is a sphere centered at the origin to which each $k$-face of $P$ is tangent. So a 0-in-sphere ...
3 votes
1 answer
84 views

Tilings of lattice polytopes by transformations of lattice polytopes

A quasi-lattice polytope is a polytope obtained by reflections, translations, and rotations of lattice polytopes. In a tiling of a lattice polytope by quasi-lattice polytopes, are all quasi-lattice ...
5 votes
1 answer
361 views

What is known about the duals of cyclic polytopes?

What is known about the duals of cyclic polytopes, in particular, their facets (or equivalently, the vertex-figures of cyclic polytopes)? In even dimensions, all facets of the dual are ...
4 votes
1 answer
293 views

Number of points in a lattice and an oblong box

I have a very simple question in geometry of numbers. (It is a slight modification of Counting points on the intersection of a box and a lattice .) There's a bound I can easily prove, and it's good ...
3 votes
1 answer
111 views

Reference for "every 5-dimensional polytope has a 3-gonal or 4-gonal face"

It seems to be folklore that every 5-dimensional convex polytope has a 3-gonal or 4-gonal face of dimension two. I was not able to track down a source for that claim. Alternatively, I would be ...
19 votes
1 answer
448 views

Precise estimate for probability an $n$-point set has diameter smaller than $1$

This question was inspired by an earlier question that I answered but would like a more precise bound for. Consider random points $x_1, \dots, x_n$ in the unit ball in $\mathbb R^d$, uniformly and ...
16 votes
4 answers
3k views

covering by spherical caps

Consider the unit sphere $\mathbb{S}^d.$ Pick now some $\alpha$ (I am thinking of $\alpha \ll 1,$ but I don't know how germane this is). The question is: how many spherical caps of angular radius $\...
14 votes
2 answers
878 views

Sets of evenly distributed points in the Euclidean plane

Is there a set $P \subset \mathbb{R}^2$ of points in the Euclidean plane whose intersection with every convex subset of $\mathbb{R}^2$ of area $1$ is nonempty but finite? If the answer is yes, can $P$...
2 votes
0 answers
103 views

Polytopes with large dihedral angles

The regular $d$-simplex has dihedral angle $\arccos(1/d)<90^\circ$, and the $d$-cube has dihedral angle exactly $90^\circ$. The maximal dihedral angle of a prism over a $(d-1)$-simplex is also $90^\...
1 vote
2 answers
227 views

A question about dense sets

Suppose that $A$ is a given subset of $I=[0,1],\ $ and $ \left\{ x_j = \frac{j}{m} \right\}_{j=0}^{m}\ $ is the $m$-partition of $I$, and $\nu(m)$ is the number of $\ [x_{i-1},x_{i}]\ $ such that $\ [...
94 votes
5 answers
10k views

Is there a dense subset of the real plane with all pairwise distances rational?

I heard the following two questions recently from Carl Mummert, who encouraged me to spread them around. Part of his motivation for the questions was to give the subject of computable model theory ...
5 votes
1 answer
177 views

Orientations of triples of points in the plane

Given a finite indexing-set $I$ and a collection $P = \{P_i: \ i \in I\}$ of points in the plane no three of which are collinear, let $I_{(3)}$ denote the set of ordered triples of distinct elements ...
16 votes
5 answers
717 views

Minimal blocking objects with shadows like a cube

This is a more geometric version of the previous question, "Lattice-cube minimal blocking sets". I will first specialize to $\mathbb{R}^3$, $d=3$. View an $n \times n \times n$ cube $C_3(n)$ as ...
4 votes
2 answers
94 views

Finding a not too slim triangulation with prescribed vertices on $\mathbb R^2$

Let us fix a constant $r>1$. Let $d(x,y)$ denote the distance between points $x,y\in \mathbb R^2$. Suppose we have a discreet subset $X\subset \mathbb R^2$ such that 1) For any two points $x,x'\...
4 votes
1 answer
108 views

Closed cobounded additive submonoid of $\mathbb{R}^n$

Let $M$ be a closed additive submonoid of $\mathbb{R}^n$ with $n\geq1$. Suppose also that there exists $r>0$ such that every ball of radius $r$ intersects $M$. I wonder if we can obtain more ...
16 votes
3 answers
2k views

Are infinite planar graphs still 4-colorable?

Imagine you have a finite number of "sites" $S$ in the positive quadrant of the integer lattice $\mathbb{Z}^2$, and from each site $s \in S$, one connects $s$ to every lattice point to which it has a ...
4 votes
0 answers
81 views

Number of orders of distances between points on a line

Points $a_1, a_2, \dots, a_n$ on a line form a set from $n(n-1)/2$ distances between them. Suppose all that distances are different, numerating them from the shortest to the longest one we obtain some ...
5 votes
2 answers
378 views

Light inside a polyhedron

I have two questions the same as Mostafa's Question: Visibility of vertices in polyhedra Suppose $P$ is a closed polyhedron in space (i.e. a union of polygons which is homeomorphic to $S^2$) and $X$ ...
3 votes
0 answers
52 views

Deformations that flatten small curvature

I'm trying to show that any 3-dimensional polyhedron with many vertices can be mildly deformed so that its vertices are no longer convexly independent. I suspect it suffices to look at a vertex with ...
6 votes
0 answers
247 views

An extension of Erdos' distinct distances problem based on circles of various radii

Consider a collection $C_1,C_2, \dots, C_n$ of circles in the plane and suppose that the center of $C_i$ is $o_i$ and the radius of $C_i$ is $r_i$. We will define the relative distance between the ...
88 votes
2 answers
7k views

Light reflecting off Christmas-tree balls

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6 votes
1 answer
470 views

Cutting the unit square into pieces with rational length sides

The following questions seem related to the still open question whether there is a point(s) whose distances from the 4 corners of a unit square are all rational. To cut a unit square into n (a finite ...
11 votes
2 answers
797 views

Three half circles on the plane may not meet nicely

Let $H$ denote the union of the northern hemisphere of the unit circle $S^{1}$ with the interval $[-1,1]$ on the $x$-axis. That is, $H=\{(x,\sqrt{1-x^{2}}):-1\le x\le 1\}\cup\{(x,0):-1\le x\le 1\}$ ...
9 votes
0 answers
100 views

A characterization of root systems via their intersections with halfspaces

In a recent preprint I obtained a nice characterization of root systems as a side product. I can imagine that this was known before, and that a source for this statement can shorten the proof of my ...
4 votes
0 answers
49 views

Equiangular lines with symmetry requirements

Listing all possible arrangements of equiangular lines is non-trivial. Does the problem become any easier when we additionally require that the symmetry group of that line arrangement acts ...
7 votes
0 answers
201 views

Minimizing energy on $\mathbb{S}^2$ for absolutely monotonic type potentials

For potential functions $f:[-1,1]\rightarrow \mathbb{R}$, satisfying that $f^{(k)}(t)\geq 0$, for $t\in(-1,1)$ and all $0\leq k \leq m$, and $f^{(m+1)}(t)<0$ for $t\in(-1,1)$, is it true that a ...
12 votes
3 answers
418 views

'Trapping' 3D regions with sheets of paper

Given a square sheet of paper, how does one create a bag (a closed surface) with it such that the 3D region contained within this closed surface has maximum volume (operations allowed include ...
18 votes
2 answers
667 views

Total length of a set with the same projections as a square

Take some convex polygon $P$. I'm mostly asking about the unit square, but would also appreciate thoughts on general polygons. We want to take a family of line segments inside $P$ that have the same ...
5 votes
0 answers
139 views

On convex regions containing (and contained within) a given triangle

Given an arbitrary triangle T. How does one find the convex region C_M of largest area containing T such that T is also the largest area triangle that is contained within C_M? Guess: for any T, ...
35 votes
3 answers
2k views

The kissing number of a square, cube, hypercube?

How many nonoverlapping unit squares can (nonoverlappingly) touch one unit square? By "nonoverlapping" I mean: not sharing an interior point. By "touch" I mean: sharing a boundary point.   &...
3 votes
0 answers
98 views

Convex region $C$ with least kissing number of copies of $C$

Given a 2D convex region $C$, let us define its kissing number $K_0$ to be the largest possible number of copies of $C$ that can be arranged around a central copy of $C$ (call this $C_0$) and touching ...
1 vote
2 answers
153 views

Smallest triangles that contain 2D convex regions with reflection symmetry

Given any 2D convex region $C$ with a mirror symmetry. Two pairs of questions: We need to find the smallest area (likewise, smallest perimeter) triangle that contains $C$. Is it sufficient to only ...
3 votes
1 answer
473 views

On 4 random points in a rectangle [closed]

Given a bounded rectangular area, I generate 4 random points. What is the probability that the fourth point lie within a triangle formed the first 3? How would I attack this problem? The goal is to ...
6 votes
1 answer
928 views

To find the Largest Regular n-gon contained in a given convex region

Given a general convex region C, to find the largest regular polygon that is contained in it (shared boundaries allowed). Basically, one needs to find that particular value of n for which a regular n-...
3 votes
1 answer
152 views

Are there any more polytopes whose 2-faces are identical 4-gons?

What are examples for convex polytope $P\subset \Bbb R^d,d\ge 3$ for which holds $P$ is 2-face transitive (that is, all 2-faces are equivalent under the symmetries of $P$), and all 2-faces of $P$ are ...
6 votes
1 answer
680 views

Napkin Folding Problem / Rumpled Ruble Problem

I am an outsider to this group. I'm a journalist and am working on a piece about theoretical math/geometry. Simply put, when a napkin is folder in such a way to increase its perimeter is that strictly ...
7 votes
1 answer
768 views

To minimize the Hausdorff distance between convex polygonal regions

Definition: The Hausdorff distance is the greatest of all the distances from a point in one set to the closest point in the other set. Question: Given two convex polygonal regions P1 and P2 on the ...
10 votes
2 answers
375 views

How many small dots can be drawn in a region such that no three are "collinear"?

When people draw dots on paper, they are actually not points, but small regions filled with ink. Suppose that each dot has disc-shape with fixed radius $r\ll 1$ and must be drawn inside (1) a square ...
3 votes
0 answers
310 views

Upper bound on the number of lattice points on the intersection of a hyperplane and a sphere

Let $R>0$, $\overrightarrow{\alpha} \in \mathbb{R}^{d}$. Consider the intersection $T$of $RS^{d-1}$ and the hyperplane $\overrightarrow{\alpha} \cdot \overrightarrow{x} = n$. What is the best known ...
6 votes
1 answer
429 views

Bichromatic pencils

A pencil is a collection of some lines through a point, called the center of the pencil. If the points of the plane are colored, then call a pencil bichromatic if there is a color that is present on ...
65 votes
3 answers
3k views

How many unit cylinders can touch a unit ball?

What is the maximum number $k$ of unit radius, infinitely long cylinders with mutually disjoint interiors that can touch a unit ball? By a cylinder I mean a set congruent to the Cartesian product of ...
6 votes
1 answer
178 views

Point distributions in unit square which minimize E[1 / distance]

Choose $n$ points $p_1,\ldots,p_n$ in the unit square $[0,1]^2\subset\mathbb{R}^2$ such that $D:=\mathop{\sum}\limits_{1\le i<j\le n}\frac{1}{dist(p_i,p_j)}$ is minimized, where $dist(p_i,p_j)$ is ...
3 votes
0 answers
137 views

Aperiodic tile with rational area

Margulis and Mozes constructed aperiodic tiling system on the hyperbolic plane consisting of a single tile(hyperbolic polygon) whose area (or each inner angle) is irrational multiple of $\pi$. Having ...
11 votes
1 answer
499 views

Tiling with incommensurate triangles

Say that two triangles are incommensurate if they do not share an edge length or a vertex angle, and their areas differ. Suppose you'd like to tile the plane with pairwise incommensurate triangles. I ...
6 votes
2 answers
410 views

Existence of finite set of points in the revolving circles

Let $k$ and $n$ be two fixed integers. Let $C$ denotes the circle with radius $4n$ (in the plane $\mathbb{R}^2$). Suppose $\{C_1,C_2\}$ shows the set of two arbitrary tangent circles with radius $2n$ ...
2 votes
2 answers
163 views

Maximum possible number of similar three-colored triangles

I want to maximize the number of similar triangles with vertices from three fixed sets, one vertex from each set. For example, if you fix two points $X$, $Y$ (i.e. two sets with only one member), then ...
2 votes
0 answers
246 views

Recover unknown vectors with dot-product queries

Suppose there are $n$ unknown unit vectors in $\mathbb{R}^d$, $V=\{v_1,\ldots,v_n\}$, no two identical. Your task is to determine the vectors in $V$. The only tool at your disposal is to query a ...
7 votes
0 answers
122 views

Discrepancy of the finite approximation of the Lebesgue measure

Let $\mu$ be a probabilistic measure on the unit square $Q$ which is the average of $N$ delta-measures in some points in this square; let $\lambda$ denote the Lebesgue measure on $Q$. What is the rate ...
7 votes
1 answer
153 views

Above/below directed graph on cells of arrangement of lines

This question concerns the structure of a directed graph built on the cells of an arrangement of lines. My basic question is whether this graph has been studied before, perhaps in another guise. I ...
16 votes
1 answer
774 views

Minimizing the excursion of a sum of unit vectors

I have $n$ unit-length vectors $v_i$ in $\mathbb{R}^3$, whose sum is zero: $$ v_1 + v_2 + \cdots + v_n = 0 \; .$$ Now I form the closed polygon $P$ in space by placing them head to tail. So the ...

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