An Isometric Embedding of the Impossible Triangle into the Euclidean Space of Lowest Dimension

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Abstract

The impossible triangle, invented independently by Oscar Reutersvärd and Roger Penrose in 1934 and 1957, is a famous geometry configuration that cannot be realized in our living space. Many people admitted that this object could be constructed in the four-dimensional Euclidean space without rigorous proof. In this paper, we prove that the isometric embedding problem can be decided by finite points on the configuration, then applying Menger and Blumenthal’s classical method of Euclidean embedding of finite metric space we determined the lowest Euclidean dimension, and finally using Maple obtained the coordinates of the isometric embedding. Our investigation shows that the impossible triangle is impossible to be isometrically embedded in the dimension four Euclidean space, but there is an isometric embedding to the dimension five space.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationMaple in Mathematics Education and Research - 4th Maple Conference, MC 2020, Revised Selected Papers
EditorsRobert M. Corless, Jürgen Gerhard, Ilias S. Kotsireas
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Pages438-457
Number of pages20
ISBN (Print)9783030816971
DOIs
StatePublished - 2021
Event4th Maple Conference, MC 2020 - Waterloo, Canada
Duration: 2 Nov 20206 Nov 2020

Publication series

NameCommunications in Computer and Information Science
Volume1414
ISSN (Print)1865-0929
ISSN (Electronic)1865-0937

Conference

Conference4th Maple Conference, MC 2020
Country/TerritoryCanada
CityWaterloo
Period2/11/206/11/20

Keywords

  • Euclidean space
  • Impossible triangle
  • Isometric embedding
  • Simplex

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