Re: Maths Problem

[Chris Benson]

On Mon, Jun 18, 2001 at 11:56:59AM +0100, David Cantrell wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 18, 2001 at 08:29:18AM +0200, Philip Newton wrote:
> > Chris Benson wrote:
> > > Mmmm, so if there are 3 water lilies with circular leaves, what
> > >  is the largest they can grow on the surface of a sphere without
> > 
> > Well, first off, the circles won't be circles "as we know them" since
> > they're not 2D circles but have a 3D component (or they wouldn't be on the
> > surface of the sphere but rather cutting a slice through it).

Leaves aren't that strong -- they'd flop into curve to fit the sphere :-)

> > However, I'd imagine that with three such bulgy circles, the best you can do
> > is space them equally around the equator.
> 
> Yes.  However you arrange them they're going to be on a plane, and so to
> have them the maximum distance apart you make sure the plane also contains
> the centre of the sphere.  It gets interesting for N>3

I thought N=4 was the easy one: points of a tetrahedron!
-- 
Chris Benson