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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

1887.0. "Circles and line segments are not homeomorphic" by EVTSG8::ESANU () Wed Aug 17 1994 05:08

The following delightful remark is rather ancient, it seems to me that it was
made a long time ago by the Romanian mathematician Alexandru Froda, whose
centennial is commemorated this year:

	Let f: R^2 -> R be continuous; then, on every circle in R^2
	there are two diametrically opposed points A and B, such that
	f(A) = f(B).

(Here R^2 is the cartesian product R x R).
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name
DateLines
1887.1AUSSIE::GARSONachtentachtig kacheltjesThu Aug 18 1994 20:149
    re .0
    
    These kind of theorems are often surprising.
    
    I think that to prove it you define a new function g to be f(A)-f(B).
    f(A) = f(B) is then equivalent to g = 0. If g = 0 at some arbitrary
    starting point then the theorem is proved. Otherwise g varies
    continuously from some non-zero value, t, to -t as the point moves
    180� around the circle and thus is 0 somewhere on the circle.
1887.2You've got it ! (1887.1)EVTSG8::ESANUFri Aug 19 1994 12:235
That's it, of course. For completeness's sake, to be mentioned also that
mapping a circle's point to its diametrically opposite is a continuous
function.

Isn't it nice in its simplicity and surprising at a first glance?