Questions tagged [mg.metric-geometry]

Euclidean, hyperbolic, discrete, convex, coarse geometry, metric spaces, comparisons in Riemannian geometry, symmetric spaces.

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122 votes
37 answers
11k views

One-step problems in geometry

I'm collecting advanced exercises in geometry. Ideally, each exercise should be solved by one trick and this trick should be useful elsewhere (say it gives an essential idea in some theory). If you ...
100 votes
6 answers
5k views

Light rays bouncing in twisted tubes

Imagine a smooth curve $c$ sweeping out a unit-radius disk that is orthogonal to the curve at every point. Call the result a tube. I want to restrict the radius of curvature of $c$ to be at most 1. I ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
100 votes
6 answers
11k views

Is there an analogue of curvature in algebraic geometry?

I am not an expert, but there seems to be an enormous technical difference between algebraic geometry and differential/metric geometry stemming from the fact that there is apparently no such thing as ...
Paul Siegel's user avatar
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96 votes
7 answers
19k views

Can we cover the unit square by these rectangles?

The following question was a research exercise (i.e. an open problem) in R. Graham, D.E. Knuth, and O. Patashnik, "Concrete Mathematics", 1988, chapter 1. It is easy to show that $$\sum_{1 \...
Kaveh's user avatar
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96 votes
4 answers
5k views

A curious relation between angles and lengths of edges of a tetrahedron

Consider a Euclidean tetrahedron with lengths of edges $$ l_{12}, l_{13}, l_{14}, l_{23}, l_{24}, l_{34} $$ and dihedral angles $$ \alpha_{12}, \alpha_{13}, \alpha_{14}, \alpha_{23}, \alpha_{24}, \...
Daniil Rudenko's user avatar
95 votes
11 answers
13k views

Is it possible to capture a sphere in a knot?

You and I decide to play a game: To start off with, I provide you with a frictionless, perfectly spherical sphere, along with a frictionless, unstretchable, infinitely thin magical rope. This rope ...
zeb's user avatar
  • 8,533
93 votes
5 answers
9k 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 ...
Joel David Hamkins's user avatar
93 votes
1 answer
6k views

Volumes of sets of constant width in high dimensions

Background The $n$-dimensional Euclidean ball of radius $1/2$ has width $1$ in every direction. Namely, when you consider a pair of parallel tangent hyperplanes in any direction the distance between ...
Gil Kalai's user avatar
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90 votes
5 answers
4k views

Does this property characterize straight lines in the plane?

Take a plane curve $\gamma$ and a disk of fixed radius whose center moves along $\gamma$. Suppose that $\gamma$ always cuts the disk in two simply connected regions of equal area. Is it true that $\...
Alessandro Della Corte's user avatar
86 votes
4 answers
10k views

Is the sphere the only surface with circular projections? Or: Can we deduce a spherical Earth by observing that its shadows on the Moon are circular?

Several ancient arguments suggest a curved Earth, such as the observation that ships disappear mast-last over the horizon, and Eratosthenes' surprisingly accurate calculation of the size of the Earth ...
Joel David Hamkins's user avatar
86 votes
2 answers
6k views

Light reflecting off Christmas-tree balls

...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
80 votes
1 answer
3k views

Converse to Euclid's fifth postulate

There is a fascinating open problem in Riemannian Geometry which I would like to advertise here because I do not think that it is as well-known as it deserves to be. Euclid's famous fifth postulate, ...
Mohammad Ghomi's user avatar
73 votes
10 answers
10k views

Riemannian surfaces with an explicit distance function?

I'm looking for explicit examples of Riemannian surfaces (two-dimensional Riemannian manifolds $(M,g)$) for which the distance function d(x,y) can be given explicitly in terms of local coordinates of ...
Terry Tao's user avatar
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69 votes
4 answers
11k views

$C^1$ isometric embedding of flat torus into $\mathbb{R}^3$

I read (in a paper by Emil Saucan) that the flat torus may be isometrically embedded in $\mathbb{R}^3$ with a $C^1$ map by the Kuiper extension of the Nash Embedding Theorem, a claim repeated in this ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
68 votes
2 answers
2k views

Continuous maps which send intervals of $\mathbb{R}$ to convex subsets of $\mathbb{R}^2$

Let $f : \mathbb{R} \longrightarrow \mathbb{R}^2$ be a continuous map which sends any interval $I \subseteq \mathbb{R}$ to a convex subset $f(I)$ of $\mathbb{R}^2$. Is it true that there must be a ...
Abcd's user avatar
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65 votes
4 answers
4k views

Tying knots with reflecting lightrays

Let a lightray bounce around inside a cube whose faces are (internal) mirrors. If its slopes are rational, it will eventually form a cycle. For example, starting with a point $p_0$ in the interior of ...
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 ...
Wlodek Kuperberg'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
63 votes
6 answers
5k views

Shortest closed curve to inspect a sphere

Let $S$ be a sphere in $\mathbb{R}^3$. Let $C$ be a closed curve in $\mathbb{R}^3$ disjoint from and exterior to $S$ which has the property that every point $x$ on $S$ is visible to some point $y$ of $...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
61 votes
11 answers
11k views

Geometric proof of the Vandermonde determinant?

The Vandermonde matrix is the $n\times n$ matrix whose $(i,j)$-th component is $x_j^{i-1}$, where the $x_j$ are indeterminates. It is well known that the determinant of this matrix is $$\prod_{1\leq ...
Daniel Litt's user avatar
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60 votes
7 answers
25k views

Is the Jaccard distance a distance?

Wikipedia defines the Jaccard distance between sets A and B as $$J_\delta(A,B)=1-\frac{|A\cap B|}{|A\cup B|}.$$ There's also a book claiming that this is a metric. However, I couldn't find any ...
rgrig's user avatar
  • 1,335
60 votes
2 answers
4k views

Does this geometry theorem have a name?

Start with a circle and draw two tangent circles inside. The (black) inner tangent lines to the smaller circles intersect the large circle. The (red) lines through these intersection points are ...
Simon's user avatar
  • 509
60 votes
1 answer
6k views

Probability that a stick randomly broken in five places can form a tetrahedron

Edit (June 2015): Addressing this problem is a brief project report from the Illinois Geometry Lab (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), dated May 2015, that appears here along with a foot-...
Benjamin Dickman's user avatar
57 votes
14 answers
18k 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 ...
55 votes
6 answers
7k views

Is it possible to partition $\mathbb R^3$ into unit circles?

Is it possible to partition $\mathbb R^3$ into unit circles?
Zarathustra's user avatar
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54 votes
3 answers
3k views

The view from inside of a mirrored tetrahedron

Suppose you were standing inside a regular tetrahedron $T$ whose internal face surfaces were perfect mirrors. Let's assume $T$'s height is $3{\times}$ yours, so that your eye is roughly at the ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
53 votes
3 answers
10k views

Sheaves and bundles in differential geometry

Because the theory of sheaves is a functorial theory, it has been adopted in algebraic geometry (both using the functor of points approach and the locally ringed space approach) as the "main theory" ...
Harry Gindi's user avatar
  • 19.4k
52 votes
3 answers
5k views

Is the "Napkin conjecture" open? (origami)

The falsity of the following conjecture would be a nice counter-intuitive fact. Given a square sheet of perimeter $P$, when folding it along origami moves, you end up with some polygonal flat figure ...
Jérôme JEAN-CHARLES's user avatar
51 votes
3 answers
2k views

Can the sphere be partitioned into small congruent cells?

On the unit $2$-sphere ${\mathbb S}^2$ furnished with the geodesic distance, a subset homeomorphic to a planar disk is called a cell. A finite family of cells is a tiling if their interiors are ...
Wlodek Kuperberg's user avatar
51 votes
4 answers
6k views

what-if.xkcd.com: stabbing (simply connected) regions on the 2-sphere with few geodesics

In the latest what-if Randall Munroe ask for the smallest number of geodesics that intersect all regions of a map. The following shows that five paths of satellites suffice to cover the 50 states of ...
Moritz Firsching's user avatar
49 votes
7 answers
5k views

Is there an algebraic approach to metric spaces?

It is well known that most topological spaces can be studied via their algebra of continuous real-valued (or complex-valued) functions. For instance, in the setting of compact Hausdorff spaces, there ...
Mark's user avatar
  • 4,804
49 votes
4 answers
4k views

What fraction of the integer lattice can be seen from the origin?

Consider the integer lattice points in the positive quadrant $Q$ of $\mathbb{Z}^2$. Say that a point $(x,y)$ of $Q$ is visible from the origin if the segment from $(0,0)$ to $(x,y) \in Q$ passes ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
49 votes
5 answers
3k views

If a unitsquare is partitioned into 101 triangles, is the area of one at least 1%?

Update: The answer to the title question is no, as pointed out by Tapio and Willie. I would be more interested in lower bounds. Monsky's famous theorem with amazingly tricky proof says that if we ...
domotorp's user avatar
  • 18.3k
49 votes
4 answers
6k views

The maximum of a polynomial on the unit circle

Encouraged by the progress made in a recently posted MO problem, here is a "conceptually related" problem originating from a 2003 joint paper of Sergei Konyagin and myself. Suppose we are given $n$ ...
Seva's user avatar
  • 22.8k
49 votes
3 answers
4k views

Explicit metrics

Every surface admits metrics of constant curvature, but there is usually a disconnect between these metrics, the shapes of ordinary objects, and typical mathematical drawings of surfaces. Can ...
Bill Thurston's user avatar
48 votes
5 answers
5k views

Is Lebesgue's "universal covering" problem still open?

The following problem has been attributed to Lebesgue. Let "set" denote any subset of the Euclidean plane. What is the greatest lower bound of the diameter of any set which contains a subset congruent ...
Garabed Gulbenkian's user avatar
48 votes
3 answers
3k views

What happens if you strip everything but the “between” relation in metric spaces

Given a metric space $(X,d)$ and three points $x,y,z$ in $X$, say that $y$ is between $x$ and $z$ if $d(x,z) = d(x,y) + d(y,z)$, and write $[x,z]$ for the set of points between $x$ and $z$. Obviously,...
user148575's user avatar
47 votes
4 answers
11k views

Volumes of n-balls: what is so special about n=5?

I am reposting this question from math.stackexchange where it has not yet generated an answer I had been looking for. The volume of an $n$-dimensional ball of radius $R$ is given by the classical ...
Andrey Rekalo's user avatar
47 votes
7 answers
5k views

Intuitive proof that the first $(n-2)$ coordinates on a sphere are uniform in a ball

It is a classical fact that if $(x_1,\ldots,x_n)$ is a random vector uniformly distributed on the sphere $S^{n-1} \subseteq \mathbb{R}^n$, then the random vector $(x_1,\ldots,x_{n-2})$ is uniformly ...
Mark Meckes's user avatar
  • 11.2k
47 votes
3 answers
3k views

A metric characterization of the real line

Is the following metric characterization of the real line true (and known)? A nonempty complete metric space $(X,d)$ is isometric to the real line if and only if for every $c\in X$ and positive real ...
Taras Banakh's user avatar
  • 40.8k
47 votes
0 answers
2k views

Concerning proofs from the axiom of choice that ℝ³ admits surprising geometrical decompositions: Can we prove there is no Borel decomposition?

This question follows up on a comment I made on Joseph O'Rourke's recent question, one of several questions here on mathoverflow concerning surprising geometric partitions of space using the axiom of ...
Joel David Hamkins's user avatar
45 votes
1 answer
4k views

Rolling a random walk on a sphere

A ball rolls down an inclined plane, encountering horizontal obstacles, at which it rolls left/right with equal probability. There are regularly spaced staggered gaps that let the ball roll down to ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
45 votes
2 answers
3k views

Can the fugitive escape?

A fugitive is surrounded by $N$ police officers, with the nearest one at distance $1$ away. The fugitive and the officers move alternatively. In a fugitive move, the fugitive can travel no more than ...
Eric's user avatar
  • 2,601
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
44 votes
11 answers
25k 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
44 votes
3 answers
2k views

Is there an elementary proof that distal maps are invertible?

Let $T: X \to X$ be a continuous map on a compact metric space $X$. We say $T$ is distal if $\inf_n d(T^n x, T^n y) = 0$ implies $x = y$. Then it is true that $T$ is bijective. Question: Is there an ...
Nate River's user avatar
  • 4,822
44 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 ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
43 votes
12 answers
2k views

Can a discrete set of the plane of uniform density intersect all large triangles?

Let S be a discrete subset of the Euclidean plane such that the number of points in a large disc is approximately equal to the area of the disc. Does the complement of S necessarily contain triangles ...
Roland Bacher's user avatar
42 votes
2 answers
3k views

Can one "hear" the shape of a polygon via external reflections?

This question is a rough analog of Kac's "Can One Hear the Shape of a Drum?" A closer analog is the recent "Bounce Theorem" that says, roughly, the shape of a polygon is determined by its billiard-...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar

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