Metric Geometry – 4 Points on a Plane with Equal Pairwise Distances

mg.metric-geometry

I am looking into a question of how many points can be put on a plane that pairwise distances between them are as close to a constant as possible. As the first step, it was rather easy to figure out that only 3 points can be put on a plane so that all pairwise distances between them are equal. As the next step, I think about 4 points.

Formally, if there are four distinct points $A_1(x_1, y_1)$, $A_2(x_2, y_2)$, $A_3(x_3, y_3)$, $A_4(x_4, y_4)$, and we define pairwise distances $d_{ij} = d(A_i, A_j) = \sqrt{(x_i – x_j)^2 + (y_i – y_j)^2}$ and $d_\text{min} = \min_{i \neq j} d_{ij}$, $d_\text{max} = \max_{i \neq j} d_{ij}$, what is the minimum ratio between the largest and smallest distances:
$$
\min_{\text{distinct } A_1, \dotsc, A_4} \frac{d_\text{max}}{d_\text{min}} = ?
$$

At the moment, I cannot even figure out if it is in fact a minimum or infimum (i.e., this ratio can get as close to 1 as you want).

Geometry is not really my area, so perhaps it is even some known result…

Best Answer

It is $\sqrt{2}$. For 4 vertices of a square, you get this value. For proving that it is always not less than $\sqrt{2}$, note that one of angles $\angle A_iA_jA_k$ is not less than $\pi/2$ (if $A_1A_2A_3A_4$ is a convex quadrilateral, the sum of angles equals $2\pi$, thus one of them is at least $\pi/2$; if $A_4$ lies in a a triangle $A_1A_2A_3$, the sum of angles $\angle A_iA_4A_j$, $1\leqslant i<j\leqslant 3$, equals $2\pi$, thus one of them is at least $2\pi/3>\pi/2$). Now $A_iA_k^2\geqslant A_iA_j^2+A_jA_k^2$, hence $\max (d_{ik}/d_{ij},d_{ik}/d_{jk})\geqslant \sqrt{2}$.

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