On the differentiability of the coordinate functions of Pólya's space-filling curve (Q1909224)

The authors continue investigations of Lax (1973) and Bumby (1975) on Pólya's continuous function which maps the unit interval onto a right-angled triangle with given acute angle \(\vartheta\leq 45^\circ\). They complete and simplify results of the above authors on the differentiability of the coordinate functions. The constructions are visualized by nice figures. The paper can be understood without knowledge of the previous literature. The main results are the following: If \(30^\circ\leq \vartheta\leq 45^\circ\), the coordinate functions are nowhere differentiable. If \(15^\circ\leq \vartheta\leq 30^\circ\), the coordinate functions are not differentiable on a set of measure 1, but have derivative zero on a non-denumerable set. If \(0^\circ< \vartheta< 15^\circ\), the coordinate functions have derivative zero on a set of measure 1. The authors give many references, beginning with Peano and Hilbert, including a book of the second author on space filling curves.