On the relative distances of seven points in a plane convex body (Q2474149)

Let \(C\) be a convex body in the Euclidean plane. The relative distance of points \(p\) and \(q\) is twice the Euclidean distance of \(p\) and \(q\) divided by the Euclidean length of a longest chord in \(C\) with direction parallel to the segment joining \(p\) and \(q\). Doliwka and Lassak (1995) proved that amonng any five boundary points of a convex set there are two at a relative distance at most \(\sqrt 5 -1 \approx 1.236\) and that the value \(\sqrt 5 -1\) cannot be replaced by a smaller one. Böröczky and Lángi (2005) obtained the corresponding result for six points where the best value is \(2-\frac{2\sqrt 5}{5}\approx 1.106\) and conjectured that the best value for seven points was \(1\). In this paper the authors verify the conjecture for the case of seven points and provide several examples of optimal convex sets and the set of points for which the bound is attained. They apply their result to determine the diameter of point sets in normed spaces.