English

Catching a Polygonal Fish with a Minimum Net

Computational Geometry 2021-01-13 v3

Abstract

Given a polygon PP in the plane that can be translated, rotated and enlarged arbitrarily inside a unit square, the goal is to find a set of lines such that at least one of them always hits PP and the number of lines is minimized. We prove the solution is always a regular grid or a set of equidistant parallel lines, whose distance depends on PP.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2008.06337,
  title  = {Catching a Polygonal Fish with a Minimum Net},
  author = {Sepideh Aghamolaei},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2008.06337},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

The original problem gives the number of lines (k) and the shape as the input and asks for the smallest scaling of the shape that is always stabbed. For parallel lines, the result was already known for squares and disks. We discussed axis-parallel solutions but we did not find the rotation. For k=1 and a rectangle, the optimal solution is the diameter

R2 v1 2026-06-23T17:51:35.288Z