Science

Kakeya conjecture: ‘Amazing’ spinning needle proof unlocks a whole new world of maths

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

The simplest shape traced out by a spinning needle (orange) is a circle, but shapes with a smaller area are possible, such as the deltoid (right), created by spinning a needle while its central point traces out a circle

Mathematicians have solved a decades-old problem related to spinning a needle, in what has been hailed as one of the most important mathematical results in recent times. Once seen as “impossible”, the solution should now unlock answers to a slew of other difficult problems that had seemed completely out of reach. “The paper is perhaps the biggest breakthrough in mathematics of…


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