Related papers: Bicycling geodesics are Kirchhoff rods
We relate the sub-Riemannian geometry on the group of rigid motions of the plane to `bicycling mathematics'. We show that this geometry's geodesics correspond to bike paths whose front tracks are either non-inflectional Euler elasticae or…
This paper concerns the geometry of bicycle tracks. We model bicycle as an oriented segment of a fixed length that is moving in the Euclidean plane so that the trajectory of the rear point is tangent to the segment at all times. The…
The model of a bicycle is a unit segment AB that can move in the plane so that it remains tangent to the trajectory of point A (the rear wheel is fixed on the bicycle frame); the same model describes the hatchet planimeter. The trajectory…
A Bicycle $(n,k)$-gon is an equilateral $n$-gon whose $k$ diagonals are of equal length. In this paper we consider periodic bicycle $(n,k)$-paths, which are a natural variation in which the polygon is replaced with a periodic polygonal…
We study a simple model of bicycle motion: a segment of fixed length in multi-dimensional Euclidean space, moving so that the velocity of the rear end is always aligned with the segment. If the front track is prescribed, the trajectory of…
We give an accessible introduction and elaboration on the methods used in obtaining a geodesic, which is the curve of shortest length connecting two points lying on the surface of a function. This is found through computing what's known as…
A unibike curve is a track that can be made by either a bicycle or a unicycle. More precisely, the end of a unit tangent vector at any point on a unibike curve lies on the curve (so the bike's front wheel always lies on the track made by…
We characterize geodesic paths in the $n$-dimensional unit sphere under sup norm. A geodesic path between two points is a shortest curve joining the two points.
Understanding the criteria that bicyclists apply when they choose their routes is crucial for planning new bicycle paths or recommending routes to bicyclists. This is becoming more and more important as city councils are becoming…
A geodesic cycle is a closed curve that connects finitely many points along geodesics. We study geodesic cycles on the sphere in regard to their role in equal-weight quadrature rules and approximation.
A geodesic in a graph G is a shortest path between two vertices of G. For a specific function e(n) of n, we define an almost geodesic cycle C in G to be a cycle in which for every two vertices u and v in C, the distance d_G(u,v) is at least…
We study closed smooth convex plane curves $\Gamma$ enjoying the following property: a pair of points $x,y$ can traverse $\Gamma$ so that the distances between $x$ and $y$ along the curve and in the ambient plane do not change; such curves…
Given two points on a soup can or conical cup with lid, we find and classify all paths of minimal length connecting them. When the number of minimal paths is finite, there are at most four on a can and three on a cup. At worst, minimal…
Let $M$ be a Riemannian manifold and ${\mathcal P}M$ be the space of all smooth paths on $M$. We describe geodesics on path space ${\mathcal P}M$. Normal neighbourhood structure on ${\mathcal P}M$ has been discussed. We identify paths on…
The paper concerns a simple model of bicycle kinematics: a bicycle is represented by an oriented segment of constant length in n-dimensional space that can move in such a way that the velocity of its rear end is aligned with the segment…
A path in the hypercube $Q_n$ is said to be a geodesic if no two of its edges are in the same direction. Let $G$ be a subgraph of $Q_n$ with average degree $d$. How long a geodesic must $G$ contain? We show that $G$ must contain a geodesic…
A geodesic orbit manifold is a complete Riemannian manifold all of whose geodesics are orbits of one-parameter groups of isometries. We give both a geometric and an algebraic characterization of geodesic orbit manifolds that are…
In first-passage percolation, we place i.i.d. continuous weights at the edges of Z^2 and consider the weighted graph metric. A distance-minimizing path between points x and y is called a geodesic, and a bigeodesic is a doubly-infinite path…
Numerical computation of shortest paths or geodesics on curved domains, as well as the associated geodesic distance, arises in a broad range of applications across digital geometry processing, scientific computing, computer graphics, and…
Let $V$ be a separable Hilbert space, possibly infinite dimensional. Let $\St(p,V)$ be the Stiefel manifold of orthonormal frames of $p$ vectors in $V$, and let $\Gr(p,V)$ be the Grassmann manifold of $p$ dimensional subspaces of $V$. We…