On two conjectures of Steinhaus (Q1567092): Difference between revisions

The author disproves two conjectures of Steinhaus concerning shortest paths on the surfaces bounding three-dimensional convex bodies. For every \(x\) on such a surface denote by \(F_x\) the set of all the farthest points, i.e. points which require the longest path from \(x\). The first conjecture says that every convex body contains a boundary point \(x\) and a point \(y\in F_x\) with at least three shortest paths joining them. The author constructs a counterexample and asks if the conjecture is true for smooth convex bodies. The second conjecture of Steinhaus says that if \(|F_x |=1\) and if \(F_{F_x}=x\) for every surface point \(x\), then the surface is a sphere. The paper shows that those two conditions of Steinhaus hold true also for the surface of each regular tetrahedron and for surfaces of many centrally symmetric convex bodies, in particular, for surfaces of ellipsoids with two equal axes and the third axis larger. The author asks how to sharpen the conditions of Steinhaus in order to obtain a characterization of spheres.