🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <D5tIBs.D4H@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca>,
hlakota@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (Hrvoje Lakota) wrote:

> In article <3kn6fh$1560@bubba.ucc.okstate.edu>,
> David Ullrich  <ullrich@math.okstate.edu> wrote:
> >molinari@math.lsa.umich.edu (Rory Molinari) wrote:
> >>
> >> >>>>> "James" == James Xidos <jamesx@morgan.ucs.mun.ca> writes:
> >> In article <3kkpsv$m60@coranto.ucs.mun.ca> jamesx@morgan.ucs.mun.ca
(James Xidos) writes:
> >> 
> >> [snip]
> >> 
> >> >>>>  <tealsl@fox.nstn.ca> writes:
> >> >>>> 
> >> >>>> > " A line goes through the point (2,2). It cuts the x axes at A
> >> >>>> > and the y axes at B. What is the minimum length of AB"
> >> >>>> 
> >> 
> >> [snipped:  discussion of why answer is zero]

I hope I'm not pointing out something that's been pointed out already (my
newsreader seems to skip messages sometimes) but it seems apparent that if
you start with the vertical line x=2 the distance is infinite. As you
rotate this line counterclockwise, you pass through a local minimum (I
think someone showed this to be (0,4)(4,0).) and then the distance
increases until the line is horizontal, y=2, at which point the distance
is infinite. Continue rotating the line ccw and you pass through another
local minimum (the true minimum) at (0,0)(0,0) then the distance increases
until you get back to vertical.

-- 
WR Lorimer

"We journey not for trafficking alone; By hotter winds our fiery hearts are fanned; For lust of knowing what should not be known, We take the Golden Road to Samarkand." (James Elroy Flecker)