Abstract
We consider two variants of the well-known "sailor in the fog" puzzle. The first version (the "asteroid surveying" problem) is set in three dimensions and asks for the shortest curve that starts at the origin and intersects all planes at unit distance from the origin. Several possible solutions are suggested in the video, including a curve of length less than 12.08. The second version (the "river shore" problem) asks for the shortest curve in the plane that has unit width. A solution of length 2.2782... is described, which we have proved to be optimal.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages | 372-373 |
| Number of pages | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2003 |
| Externally published | Yes |
| Event | Nineteenth Annual Symposium on Computational Geometry - san Diego, CA, United States Duration: Jun 8 2003 → Jun 10 2003 |
Other
| Other | Nineteenth Annual Symposium on Computational Geometry |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | United States |
| City | san Diego, CA |
| Period | 6/8/03 → 6/10/03 |
Keywords
- Curves
- Geometric constants
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Theoretical Computer Science
- Geometry and Topology
- Computational Mathematics