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There are finitely many lines in a plane $\mathbb{R}^2$. $\textbf{None of them is parallel}$. For each line $L$ which intersects with other lines say at $A_1$, $A_2$, $\cdots$ , $A_n$ in the consecutive order, it is called (1) well-divided (w.d.) if $A_1A_2 = A_2A_3 = \cdots = A_{n-1}A_n$; (2) geometrically-divided (g.d.) if $A_{i+1}A_{i+2}/A_iA_{i+1}=k$ for all $i$. (3) monotone if $A_iA_{i+1}$'s are monotone increasing or decreasing.

For (2) and (3) they must be in the consecutive order.

A well-divided line is trivial if there are only one or two intersections. Similarly, g.d. lines and monotone lines are trivial if there are three intersections or less.

Recently I proved the following result:

Theorem. If all lines are well-divided, then there is at most one non-trivial well-divided line.

My questions are, what if all lines are g.d. lines with the same ratio $k$? What if all lines are g.d. lines with arbitrary ratios? What if all lines are monotone?

I only have some partial results.

Has anyone considered these problems before? Can anyone give me some references about these problems? Thanks.

  • How is it possible that there are more than three well-divided lines in the plane without having two of them parallel? – Crostul Aug 16 '16 at 22:07
  • @Crostul When they all concur? This may be the only possible situation. – Batominovski Aug 16 '16 at 22:20
  • @HaoranChen Can you provide a proof of your theorem, so that we can better understand your question. – Batominovski Aug 16 '16 at 22:21
  • If there are n>3 lines, they are either all concurrent, or n-1 lines are concurrent, and the other line is well divided by the n-1 lines. – Haoran Chen Aug 16 '16 at 22:23
  • @Batominovski I have submitted my result to a journal and it's still under review. I can send you a copy if you like. The proof uses an idea that is similar to the proof of the famous Sylvester's problem and is about 4 pages. – Haoran Chen Aug 16 '16 at 22:28
  • Have you posted on arXiv (https://arxiv.org/)? If you haven't planned to do that, you can also send a copy to me at [email protected]. Your problem looks very interesting. – Batominovski Aug 16 '16 at 22:35
  • @Batominovski I'm trying to post it on arXiv. I will let you know as soon as I post it. – Haoran Chen Aug 16 '16 at 23:39

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