[Search for users] [Overall Top Noters] [List of all Conferences] [Download this site]

Conference rusure::math

Title:Mathematics at DEC
Moderator:RUSURE::EDP
Created:Mon Feb 03 1986
Last Modified:Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:2083
Total number of notes:14613

629.0. "old Putnam problem" by SSDEVO::LARY () Fri Dec 12 1986 17:33

This question appeared on the Putnam in prehistoric times, when I was in
college. It stumped me then and it would probably stump me now. I always
thought it was an elegant problem and I wish I knew the answer...

A paraphrase of the original problem is:

	Over all sets of 6 points in a plane, what is the minimum value of 
	the ratio of the maximum distance between any two points over the
	minimum distance between any two points?

This has the obvious generalization:

	Over all sets of n points in a plane, n > 1, what is the minimum
	value R(n) of the ratio of the maximum distance between any two
	points over the minimum distance between any two points?


A couple of sample values:

R(2)  = 1			trivially
R(3)  = 1			equilateral triangle
R(4)  = SQRT(2) = 1.414...	square - is this minimal?
R(5) <= 2*COS(pi/5) = 1.618...	pentagon
R(6) <= 2*COS(pi/10) = 1.902...	pentagon plus center point

I will include what I remember as the answer (no explanantion was given in
the answer sheet I saw) for R=6 following a <FF> for those who like problems...


R(6) = SQRT(3) = 1.732...	don't ask me how....


T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name
DateLines
629.2Apparent improvement on R(4)SQM::HALLYBAre all the good ones taken?Fri Dec 12 1986 18:0013
> R(4)  = SQRT(2) = 1.414...	square - is this minimal?
    
    Correct me if I misunderstand, but wouldn't an equilateral triangle
    plus center point have a ratio of 1/SQRT(1/4 + 1/3) = 1.3093...
    
    Suppose we have an equilateral triangle based at (0,0), (1,0) and
    (1/2, SQRT(3)).  Draw the three medians which are also the three
    interior bisectors and also perpendicular to the opposite sides.
    The three lines intersect at one point (old theorem from 10th grade),
    and the coordinates of that point can be seen to be (1/2, tan(pi/6)),
    so the distance from there to the origin is SQRT(1/4 + 1/3), since
    tan(pi/6) = sqrt(1/3).  The max distance is 1 by construction, hence
    the result.
629.3understanding is OK, numbers are offSSDEVO::LARYFri Dec 12 1986 18:2113
>    Suppose we have an equilateral triangle based at (0,0), (1,0) and
>    (1/2, SQRT(3)).  Draw the three medians which are also the three
>    interior bisectors and also perpendicular to the opposite sides.
>    The three lines intersect at one point (old theorem from 10th grade),
>    and the coordinates of that point can be seen to be (1/2, tan(pi/6)),
>    so the distance from there to the origin is SQRT(1/4 + 1/3), since
>    tan(pi/6) = sqrt(1/3).  The max distance is 1 by construction, hence
>    the result.

The top point of the triangle would be at (1/2, SQRT(3)/2); the intersection
point is at (1/2, tan(pi/6)/2) so the distance is SQRT(1/4+1/12) = SQRT(1/3)
and the ratio is SQRT(3) > SQRT(2).

629.4an experiment - no resultsENGINE::ROTHMon Dec 15 1986 08:4619
    I tried an empiricist approach of running a small program that
    drew 6 random points and then each iteration, nudged the furthest
    ones together and the closest apart by a small random amount

    Each iteration I plotted the network of lines after centering the
    figure and normalizing the longest line to a length of one.

    Most converged to a pentagon, but a few went to a figure which only
    had symmetry about a line, but none attained the lower bound in the
    base note.  It is hard to believe.

    The program is nothing to write home about, its very inefficient, but
    it was interesting that it converged to some plausable minima.

    I have some so called 'stochastic gradient' optimization procedures
    that I once used for circuit optimization, and may try that on the
    problem, just to see if it works any better...

    - Jim
629.5CLT::GILBERTeager like a childMon Dec 15 1986 13:3818
    I tried the following approach.

    Draw two points at distance sqrt(3), and draw circles of radii 1
    and sqrt(3) centered at these points.  Now the circles of radius
    sqrt(3) form a lozenge in which the other four points must lie,
    and the four additional points may not lie within the circles of
    radius 1.  Thus, there are two 'diamond-shaped' areas that must
    contain the four remaining points.

    A little playing should convince you that three points (separated
    by a distance of at least 1) will not fit in one of diamond-shaped
    regions.  Hence, the four additional points must be distributed
    two per diamond.  However these four points are placed, two of them
    (from opposite sides) will be separated by more than sqrt(3).

    Thus, the answer of sqrt(3) appears to be wrong.  Could someone
    verify or duplicate this approach?
					- Gilbert