solidot新版网站常见问题,请点击这里查看。

Alice in Triangleland: Lewis Carroll's Pillow Problem and Variants Solved on Shape Space of Triangles. (arXiv:1711.11492v1 [math.HO])

来源于:arXiv
We provide a natural answer to Lewis Carroll's pillow problem of what is the probability that a triangle is obtuse, Prob(Obtuse). This arises by straightforward combination of a) Kendall's Theorem - that the space of all triangles is a sphere - and b) the natural map sending triangles in space to points in this shape sphere. The answer is 3/4. Our method moreover readily generalizes to a wider class of problems, since a) and b) both have many applications and admit large generalizations: Shape Theory. An elementary and thus widely accessible prototype for Shape Theory is thereby desirable, and extending Kendall's already-notable prototype a) by demonstrating that b) readily solves Lewis Carroll's well-known pillow problem indeed provides a memorable and considerably stronger prototype. This is a prototype of, namely, mapping flat geometry problems directly realized in a space to shape space, where differential-geometric tools are readily available to solve the problem and then finally 查看全文>>