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Asian man solves pi (CNN)

Name: Anonymous 2007-08-28 18:03 ID:B2SxNE5x

Just kidding LOL.

Is it possible to have two polygons with the same area, but different perimeters?

Name: RedCream 2007-08-28 23:15 ID:zwAiNAaJ

From a practical standpoint, you may have heard that a sphere encloses a volume with minimal surface area.  That implies that it's possible to have a volume enclosed with larger surface areas.  That implies that in 2D, we can have a minimum area enclosure (i.e. a circle), which then implies that there are other examples of larger perimeter.

There was a math problem/proposal that I once read, which challenged the reader to give the minimum area needed to turn a line segment around 180 degrees.  The first answer that comes to mind would be a circle of the segment's diameter.  Closer examination (based upon the 0-width of the line segment) proves that the minimum area is 0 ... since you can move the line segment back and forth with an infinitesimal swing of arc.  The resulting "polygon" looks like a star with infinite spikes of 0 width.  As you can imagine, the perimeter is infinite, too.  Fascinating stuff, although a bit mentally masturbatory.

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