Angles as probabilities

dc.creatorFeldman, David V.
dc.creatorKlain, Daniel A.
dc.date2008-09-19
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T10:04:15Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T10:04:15Z
dc.descriptionWe use a probabilistic interpretation of solid angles to generalize the well-known fact that the inner angles of a triangle sum to 180 degrees. For the 3-dimensional case, we show that the sum of the solid inner vertex angles of a tetrahedron T, divided by 2*pi, gives the probability that an orthogonal projection of T onto a random 2-plane is a triangle. More generally, it is shown that the sum of the (solid) inner vertex angles of an n-simplex S, normalized by the area of the unit (n-1)-hemisphere, gives the probability that an orthogonal projection of S onto a random hyperplane is an (n-1)-simplex. Applications to more general polytopes are treated briefly, as is the related Perles-Shephard proof of the classical Gram-Euler relations.
dc.description4 pages
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/0809.3459
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/0809.3459
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/169599
dc.subjectMetric Geometry
dc.subject52B11
dc.titleAngles as probabilities
dc.typetext

Files

Collections