Subject: rotating a needle 360 degrees
Date: 27 Sep 2000 21:44:12 -0700
From: Fixingsarl

I read somewhere that the smallest surface covered by a needle making a 360 degrees-turn is the inside of a 3-cusp epicycloid. Well! this sounds logical. But I read later on that a japanese mathematician proved that it was not true and that there is an infinity of curves generated by a 360degree rotating needle with the smallest surface each.

Can you cllear up this nonsense and remove the fog invading my mind at the reading of such affirmation???

Thank you.

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