English

Billiards and the Five Distance Theorem II

Combinatorics 2012-07-31 v1 Number Theory

Abstract

We consider a billiard table rectangle. If a billiard ball is sent out from position F(1) at the angle of π/4\pi/4, then the ball will rebound against the sides of the rectangle consecutively in points F(2),F(3),...F(2),F(3),.... Let n5n\geq5 and Φ={F(j):1jn}\Phi= \{F(j): 1\leq j\leq n \} be the set of different points. An open connected subset of the perimeter of the billiard rectangle with different endpoints from the set Φ\Phi is called \textit{segment}. \textit{Length} of a segment is a distance along the perimeter between its endpoints. A segment with endpoints F(k)F(k), F(l), 1k,ln1\le k,l\le n, is called \textit{even} (or \textit{odd}), and has \textit{weight} kl|k-l| (or k+lk+l) if kk, ll are of the same (or different) parity. A segment is called \textit{elementary} if there are no points of the set Φ\Phi between its endpoints. Suppose V{F(1),F(n)}\emptyset \neq V\subseteq\{F(1),F(n)\}. A segment II is \textit{associated} with VV if II is an elementary segment incident with an element of VV or IΦI\cap\Phi is nonempty set contained in VV. Let ω1<ω2\omega_1<\omega_2 be odd weights and ω0\omega_0 be an even weight of segments associated with {F(1)}\{F(1)\}, and let ω3<ω4\omega_3<\omega_4 be other odd weights of segments associated with {F(1),F(n)}\{F(1),F(n)\}. Suppose that aia_i is the length of the segment with the weight ωi\omega_i, i=0,...,4i = 0,..., 4. In an earlier paper the author have proved that the weights of elementary segments have at most five different values ω0,...,ω4\omega_0,..., \omega_4. Moreover, elementary segments with equal weights have equal lengths. Let AiA_i be the set of all elementary segments with weight ωi\omega_i. In this paper we prove that, if we know weights ω0\omega_0, ω1\omega_1, ω4\omega_4, and ϵ,δ{1,1}\epsilon, \delta \in \{-1, 1\} such that a2ϵa1=a3δa4=a0a_2-\epsilon a_1 = a_3-\delta a_4 =a_0, then we can easily calculate A0,...,A4|A_0|, ..., |A_4|.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1207.6712,
  title  = {Billiards and the Five Distance Theorem II},
  author = {Jan Florek},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1207.6712},
  year   = {2012}
}

Comments

3 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-21T21:42:57.069Z