The length, width, and inradius of space curves

DOI10.1007/S10711-017-0312-3MaRDI QIDQ1622892zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Mohammad Ghomi

Publication date 21 November 2018

Published in Geometriae Dedicata (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1605.01144

zbMATH Keywords

convex hullwidthinradiusescape pathasteroid surveyBellman's lost in a forest problemCrofton's formulasoptimal search patternsecond hullsphere inspection

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Length, area, volume and convex sets (aspects of convex geometry) (52A38) Inequalities and extremum problems involving convexity in convex geometry (52A40) Curves in Euclidean and related spaces (53A04) Convex sets in (3) dimensions (including convex surfaces) (52A15)

Abstract: The width $w$ of a curve $gamma$ in Euclidean space $R^n$ is the infimum of the distances between all pairs of parallel hyperplanes which bound $gamma$, while its inradius $r$ is the supremum of the radii of all spheres which are contained in the convex hull of $gamma$ and are disjoint from $gamma$. We use a mixture of topological and integral geometric techniques, including an application of Borsuk Ulam theorem due to Wienholtz and Crofton's formulas, to obtain lower bounds on the length of $gamma$ subject to constraints on $r$ and $w$. The special case of closed curves is also considered in each category. Our estimates confirm some conjectures of Zalgaller up to $99\mathrm{\%}$ of their stated value, while we also disprove one of them.

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Cited in

(9)

• Shortest closed curve to contain a sphere in its convex hull
• The Length of Spirographic Curves
• On a minimax problem for ovals
• A ratio between the lengths of the edges of the equator of a flexible suspension in the Lobachevsky 3-space
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