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Results tagged with billiards
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user 6094
Billiards are a class of dynamical systems in which a point particle moves uniformly in a domain $D\subset \mathbb{R}^d$ except for mirror-like reflections from the boundary. Varying $D$ leads to examples satisfying many ergodic properties. Billiards enhance visual explanations of dynamical concepts to students and the general public. There are many applications in physics and image processing. The free motion and/or reflection rule may be generalized.
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Billiard circuits in pentagons
A billiard circuit in a convex $n$-gon is a closed billiard path
of $n$ segments reflecting from consecutive edges of the polygon.
Every regular $n$-gon has such a billiard circuit:
Recently a comple …
- 151k
25
votes
1
answer
493
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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 billiard …
- 151k
10
votes
0
answers
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Minimum reflection paths in a mirror polygon
Let $P$ be a simple, orthogonal polygon of $n$ edges, i.e., one whose edges meet at right angles,
and is non-self-intersecting;
also known as a rectilinear polygon.
Treat every edge of $P$ as a perfec …
- 151k
5
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0
answers
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Pocket billiards with balls in general position
There were at least two earlier MO questions about ideal pocket billiards.
(Ideal: frictionless, perfectly elastic collisions.)
Perfectly centered break of a perfectly aligned pool ball rack. … Does there exist a shot in ideal pocket billiards?.
Answered Not always by George Lowther with a clever example:
My question is a variation on whether there is always a shot. …
- 151k
4
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0
answers
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Illuminating a just-barely irrational polygon
As has been discussed earlier on MO,1,2
recently an impressive advance was proved concerning
internally illuminating a mirrored polygon.
Here is the result:
Let $P$ be a rational polygon.
Then for an …
- 151k
1
vote
0
answers
84
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Trapping lightrays under nonstandard reflections and/or paths
Geometry and Billiards, p. 116.
Can we trap light in a polygonal room? … I think for billiards under gravity the answer is likely Yes,
but I have little intuition for reflections at a fraction of angle of incidence.
…
- 151k
42
votes
2
answers
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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-bou …
- 151k
18
votes
0
answers
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Trapping lightrays with segment mirrors
Q. Is it possible to trap all the light from one point source by a finite collection of two-sided disjoint segment mirrors?
I posed this question in several forums before (e.g., here
and in an ea …
- 151k
10
votes
1
answer
570
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Periodic billiard paths in hyperbolic triangles
It is a theorem of Masur that all rational triangles in the Euclidean plane posses a periodic billiard path,
one obeying the reflection law that the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection. …
- 151k
2
votes
1
answer
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Complexity of recognizing equivalent translation surfaces
"A translation surface is a union of polygons with pairs of parallel edges identified by translation, up to cut and paste equivalence."
I take that succinct (and not fully precise) definition fro …
- 151k
10
votes
3
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Which polygons have *simple* periodic billiard paths?
I know (or, rather, believe) that it remains unknown whether every polygon
has a periodic billiard path.
But Howard Masur proved in the 1980's that every rational polygon
(vertex angles rational mult …
- 151k
54
votes
3
answers
3k
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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 centroi …
- 151k
9
votes
1
answer
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Billiard dynamics with angle of reflection a fraction of angle of incidence
Suppose that a billiard ball bouncing in a unit square (or a lightray reflecting
in a mirrored square) has the property that the angle of reflection is a fraction
of the angle of incidence, rather tha …
- 151k
32
votes
5
answers
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Can every $\mathbb{Z}^2$ disk be pinball-reached?
Let every point of $\mathbb{Z}^2$ be surrounded by a mirrored disk of radius $r < \frac{1}{2}$,
except leave the origin $(0,0)$ unoccupied by a disk.
Q. Is it the case that every disk can be hit b …
- 151k
25
votes
4
answers
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Pinball on the infinite plane
Imagine pinball on the infinite plane, with every lattice
point $\mathbb{Z}^2$ a point pin.
The ball has radius $r < \frac{1}{2}$.
It starts just touching the origin pin, and shoots off at angle $\the …
- 151k