Where have all the grasshoppers gone?
Combinatorics
2023-05-09 v2
Abstract
Let be an -element point set in the plane. Consider (pointlike) grasshoppers sitting at different points of . In a "legal" move, any one of them can jump over another, and land on its other side at exactly the same distance. After a finite number of legal moves, can the grasshoppers end up at a point set, similar to, but larger than ? We present a linear algebraic approach to answer this question. In particular, we solve a problem of Brunck by showing that the answer is yes if is the vertex set of a regular -gon and . Some generalizations are also considered.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2211.03870,
title = {Where have all the grasshoppers gone?},
author = {János Pach and Gábor Tardos},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2211.03870},
year = {2023}
}
Comments
11 pages