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6 votes
1 answer
508 views

How many triangulations of a regular octahedron are there, without introducing new vertices?

It is easy to find three triangulations, each consisting of four tetrahedra. Are there more?
John Kieffer's user avatar
11 votes
2 answers
455 views

Dodecahedral rolling distance

Let a dodecahedron sit on the plane, with one face's vertices on an origin-centered unit circle. Fix the orientation so that the edge whose indices are $(1,2)$ is horizontal. For any $p \in \mathbb{R}...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
7 votes
0 answers
209 views

Stabbing disks in space, or: Galactic alignment

I have a collection of $n$ unit-radius disks in $\mathbb{R}^3$, whose centers are random within a sphere of radius $R>1$, and which are each oriented randomly. I'd like to find a line $L$ that ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
9 votes
3 answers
1k views

What rectangles can a set of rectangles tile?

(I asked this question first on math.stackexchange, but did not get any responses so I thought I would try here.) If we have a set of $p_i \times q_i$ rectangles ($p_i, q_i \in \mathbf{N}$), which $m \...
Herman Tulleken's user avatar
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 ...
Mohammad Ghomi's user avatar
17 votes
5 answers
883 views

Rigidity of convex polyhedrons in $\mathbb R^3$ with faces removed

Take a convex polyhedron $P$ in $\mathbb R^3$ and remove all the faces, i.e. leave only the edges. Call this graph $E$. Let us now try to continuously deform $E$ in $\mathbb R^3$ so that all the edges ...
aglearner's user avatar
  • 14.3k
4 votes
1 answer
124 views

Convex caps with prescribed edges and curvature

Let $G$ be the edge graph of a convex subdivision of a convex polygon $P$ in the plane. I would like to construct a convex polyhedral cap $C$ (with zero boundary values) over $P$ whose edges project ...
Mohammad Ghomi's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
472 views

3D discrete curves geometry: method to order points in a same "general" ordering

I have a collection of 3D discrete curves $\{C_i\}$, each with a different number of points $N_i$: $$ C_i = [p^i_0, p^i_1, ..., p^i_{N_i}] \text{ with } p^i_k=[x^i_k, y^i_k, z^i_k] \text{ i.e. } C_i \...
michael's user avatar
  • 131
9 votes
0 answers
237 views

Herding sheep in a polygon

Imagine sheep fill a simple (simply connected) polygon $P$, except at one vertex $x$ there is no sheep. One convex vertex $g$ of $P$ is a gate through which the sheep should pass. A herding dog sits ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
30 votes
5 answers
16k views

How to check if a box fits in a box?

How could I calculate if a rectangular cuboid fits in an other rectangular cuboid, it may rotate or be placed in any way inside the bigger one. For example would, (650,220,55) fit in (590,290,160), ...
user115086's user avatar
10 votes
3 answers
537 views

Perimeter-halving center of a convex shape

Let $P$ be a convex polygon (or any convex body in $\mathbb{R}^2$) with perimeter of length $1$. Call a chord $c$ of $P$ perimeter-halving if half the perimeter lies to one side of $c$ (and so half to ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
153 views

Perimeters of nested convex spherical polygons

I seek a reference—not a proof—that if $P_1$ and $P_2$ are two convex polygons on a sphere composed of geodesic segments, contained in a hemisphere, and $P_1 \subseteq P_2$, then the ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
188 views

Transport tubes in a sphere

Let $S$ be a unit-radius sphere in $\mathbb{R}^3$. Q0. Where should one place $3$ disjoint lines intersecting $S$ to minimize the maximum distance between any two points in $S$, where distance is ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
10 votes
2 answers
280 views

Monochromatic point sets in two-colored plane

Which are the configrations $P\subset \mathbb{R}^2$ of points, such that the following property holds: Property M (for Monochromatic): Every two-coloring of $\mathbb{R}^2$ contains a monochromatic ...
Moritz Firsching's user avatar
16 votes
2 answers
466 views

Does a certain points and lines configuration exist?

For which $n$ we may mark $n$ red and $n$ blue points on the Euclidean plane, not all on a line, so that any line which passes through two points of different colour contains another point? For $n=...
Fedor Petrov's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
263 views

Knotted TSP tours in 3D?

In the plane, the Euclidean TSP tour never crosses itself—it is always a simple polygon. I am wondering if there is a similar constraint for the Euclidean TSP tour of points in $\mathbb{R}^3$. ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
7 votes
3 answers
2k views

Partitioning a rectangle into different isosceles triangles

After all the discussion raised by this old question, I am wondering about a somewhat complementary one: For any given rectangle, does there exist a finite set of pairwise different isosceles ...
Wolfgang's user avatar
  • 13.4k
2 votes
1 answer
153 views

Bounding number of $k$-nearest neighbor sets in $\mathbb{R}^d$

Suppose that $\mathcal{X} \subseteq \mathbb{R}^d$ is compact. Let there be $n$ distinct points $X = \{ x_1,...,x_n \} \subseteq \mathcal{X}$ and $k = \lfloor n^\alpha \rfloor$ where $0 < \alpha &...
heinrich's user avatar
33 votes
3 answers
5k views

Do bubbles between plates approximate Voronoi diagrams?

For example, soap bubbles:                   Image from UPenn: "A 2-dimensional foam of wet soap bubbles squashed between glass plates, after 10 hours ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
6 votes
0 answers
191 views

Cut locus on a hypercube

Inspired by the question, "Shortest path connecting two opposite points on a cube": Q. What does the cut locus with respect to one corner of a hypercube in $\mathbb{R}^d$ look like? "The cut ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
38 votes
7 answers
5k views

Shortest path connecting two opposite points on a cube

Is it true, that a path connecting two opposite points (i.e. such that the segment joining them passes through the centre of mass of the cube) on the surface of the $d$-dimensional unit cube (with $d&...
Arseniy Akopyan's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
422 views

Can $n$ circles on a plane generate $m$ intersection points where at least $k$ circles intersect?

Can $n$ circles on a plane generate $m$ intersection points where at least $k$ circles intersect? For $k = 2$ the answer is obvious since we can always place circles so that every one of them ...
myro's user avatar
  • 63
7 votes
0 answers
187 views

distance distributions on a hypersphere?

Fix a real number $0\leq t\leq 1$ and an integer $n>1$. Let $\mathbb{S}^{n-1}\subset\mathbb{R}^n$ denote the unit hypersphere. Define $$d_N(n;t):=\max\sum_{i<j}\Vert P_i-P_j\Vert_2^t$$ where ...
T. Amdeberhan's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
424 views

A class of tilings with amazing visual qualities

For more examples please see my related question on MSE: Interesting tiling with a lot of symmetrical shapes This is achieved by rotation of square grid over itself by atan(3/4). Resulting ...
Mikhail V's user avatar
  • 161
3 votes
1 answer
295 views

Monotone polygons (and polyhedra) with respect to a point

Dear mathoverflow community, working on a visualization project I encountered a geometric problem, which I have not yet heard about and am interested in solving algorithmically. However a mere hint ...
K. Werner's user avatar
10 votes
2 answers
387 views

What is Kept Fixed for Flexible Spheres

For background to this question much recent exciting related things, see this videotaped lecture by Alexander Gaifullin. Consider a triangulation $K$ of a two-dimensional sphere and consider maps ...
Gil Kalai's user avatar
  • 24.7k
7 votes
1 answer
318 views

Finding a short path using $(0.99n)!$ permutations

Suppose I have $n$ points $x_1,\dots,x_n$ that are all independent uniform samples in the unit square, and I'd like to find a short path (in terms of Euclidean length) that touches all of them (a ...
Tom Solberg's user avatar
  • 4,049
3 votes
2 answers
202 views

Existence of lattices whose circles have bounded number of points

For any plane lattice $\Lambda= \{ mA+nB: m,n \in \mathbb Z \}$, with $A,B$ linearly independent vectors in $\mathbb R^2$, we define the set of the circles in $\Lambda$ as $$\mathcal K(\Lambda) = \...
AlterTim's user avatar
  • 315
9 votes
2 answers
598 views

Dissecting Ramanujan´s Cuboid: 1729 = 19 x 13 x 7

Consider the cuboid of dimensions 19 x 13 x 7 whose volume is 1729, the Hardy-Ramanujan number. What is the least number of smaller cuboids into which it can be dissected so that the resulting pieces ...
Bernardo Recamán Santos's user avatar
15 votes
2 answers
885 views

Lattice n-gons with ordered side lengths 1,2,3,...,n

Consider the octagon in the Cartesian plane with vertices at (0,0), (1,0), (1,2), (4,2), (4,6), (7,2), (7,8), and (0,8). Are there other (infinitely many) polygons, such as this, lying entirely in the ...
Bernardo Recamán Santos's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
207 views

Classification of symmetries of tilings in surfaces?

Is there a general study of the symmetries of tilings on surfaces? Conway, Goodman-Strauss & Burgiel classified them on $\mathbb S^2, \mathbb R^2$ and $\mathbb H^2$, with their 'Magic Theorem'. ...
Melquíades Ochoa's user avatar
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 ...
Will Sawin's user avatar
  • 148k
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 $D$ ...
Moritz Firsching's user avatar
12 votes
1 answer
614 views

Covering the unit sphere by open hemispheres

Suppose $H_1,\ldots,H_{2n}$ are open hemispheres which cover $S^{n-1}$ with the property that removing any one of them leaves $S^{n-1}$ uncovered. Is it necessarily the case that the hemispheres can ...
Marcel Celaya's user avatar
21 votes
2 answers
1k views

On convergence of convex bodies

Let $K\subset \mathbb{R}^n$ be a compact convex set of full dimension. Assume that $0\in \partial K$. Question 1. Is it true that there exists $\varepsilon_0>0$ such that for any $0<\...
asv's user avatar
  • 21.8k
2 votes
1 answer
189 views

What is the maximal diameter of a cell in a particular partition of the simplex?

Consider a standard simplex with points $(p_1, \dots, p_n)$, $p_i \ge 0$, and $\sum_i p_i = 1$. Fix a set $\{q_k\}_{k=1}^K$ with $0\leq q_k \leq \infty$ and $i,j\in\{1, \dots, n\}$. Partition it via ...
User123321's user avatar
10 votes
1 answer
277 views

Optimization of points on a plane

Suppose we have $n$ points on a plane. Let $D$ be the sum of the squares of all the pairwise distances between the points. Let $A$ be the area of the convex hull. What is the minimum possible value of ...
Halbort's user avatar
  • 1,129
0 votes
0 answers
89 views

What is the minimal number of lines needed to partition a simplex into cells of diameter at most $\epsilon$?

I am studying a problem that requires me to partition the simplex into cells using a particular family of hyperplanes. For concreteness, consider the 2-simplex. I would like to construct lines ...
User123321's user avatar
5 votes
0 answers
135 views

What is the maximal convex hull in $\mathbb R^3$ of a tree with fixed total length?

Denote by $\mathcal T_n$ the set of all trees on $n$ nodes. For a tree $T\in\mathcal T_n$, we assign to each edge a non-negative length such that the sum of all lengths is 1. Denote by $v(T)$ the ...
Wolfgang's user avatar
  • 13.4k
7 votes
1 answer
209 views

Are the primary parallelotopes classified? (equivalently, Voronoi cells of lattices)

A primary parallelohedron is a polyhedron that can fill space with infinite translated copies. It is known (e.g., Coxeter, H. S. M. Regular Polytopes, 3rd ed. New York: Dover, pp. 29-30, 1973; or, ...
Samuel Reid's user avatar
  • 1,441
0 votes
1 answer
71 views

A bound on the Haussdorff distance

Let $X, Y \subset \mathbb{Z}^2$ be two discrete and bounded sets. Let $f_X$ be the Euclidean signed distance function of $X$ (similarly for $Y$) and $d_H(X,Y)$ the Euclidean Haussdorff distance ...
teide4's user avatar
  • 59
3 votes
1 answer
190 views

How many points are in such set with the same norm-2

Let $L=[a,b]\cap\mathbb{N}$ with $a,b\in\mathbb{N}$, let $D\in\mathbb{N}$, and let $C=L^D$. Then I would like to know how many points are there in $C$ with the same given norm-2 $d$. I.e., I'm looking ...
Carlos Navarro Astiasarán's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
205 views

How to show it is contained in a convex hull?

There are $(d+1)f$ points (denote the set of all points as $S$) in $\mathbb{R}^d$, that can be divide into $d+1$ disjoint sets $F_1,...,F_{d+1}$, each set of size $f$. If we have $$ \mathcal{H}(F_i)\...
xzl's user avatar
  • 43
5 votes
1 answer
303 views

Intersection of rotating regular polygons

This question has a recreational flavor, but may not be entirely uninteresting. Let $P_k$ be a unit-radius regular polygon of $k$ sides, and $P_n$ a unit-radius regular polygon of $n \ge k$ sides. ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
94 views

Finding closest set of K disjoint hyperspheres to a point in $\mathbb{R}^n$ with uniform radius

I am interested in the following problem: in $\mathbb{R}^n$, we have $N$ overlapping hyperspheres all with the same radius. Given a point $p$ in $\mathbb{R}^n$, the objective is to find the $K$ non ...
eagle34's user avatar
  • 161
34 votes
1 answer
3k views

Tiling a square with rectangles

Is it possible to completely tile a square with different rectangles of integer sides but all with the same area? The original problem, not requiring integer sides for rectangles, was proposed by Joe ...
Bernardo Recamán Santos's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
2k views

Lattice points on the boundary of an ellipse

How many points of the integer lattice ${\mathbb Z}^2$ can an axis-parallel ellipse of radius $r$ contain on its boundary? (that is, we consider ${\mathbb Z}^2$ as lying in ${\mathbb R}^2$). ...
Adam Sheffer's user avatar
  • 1,072
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 ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
248 views

Choosing the weights of a Voronoi diagram -- is this function always the gradient of another function?

This question is related to the earlier question Weighted area of a Voronoi cell . As in that question, let $X = \{ x_1,\dots,x_n\} $ denote a set of $n$ points in the unit square $S = [0,1]\times[0,...
Tom Solberg's user avatar
  • 4,049
4 votes
2 answers
162 views

Basic question about discrete minimal surfaces

Let $P$ be a convex polygon with $n > 3$ vertices $v_1, \ldots, v_n \in \mathbb{R}^2$, let $x$ be a point in the interior of $P$, and let $u$ be a function with prescribed values at the vertices of ...
jellybean's user avatar
  • 133

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