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Comments on an ancient Greek racecourse: finding minimum width annuluses

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An Erratum to this article was published on 28 May 2008

Abstract

For a set of measured points, we describe a linear-programming model that enables us to find concentric circumscribed and inscribed circles whose annulus encompasses all the points and whose width tends to be minimum in a Chebychev minmax sense. We illustrate the process using the data of Rorres and Romano (SIAM Rev. 39: 745–754, 1997) that is taken from an ancient Greek stadium in Corinth. The stadium’s racecourse had an unusual circular arc starting line, and measurements along this arc form the basic data sets of Rorres and Romano (SIAM Rev. 39: 745–754, 1997). Here we are interested in finding the center and radius of the circle that defined the starting line arc. We contrast our results with those found in Rorres and Romano (SIAM Rev. 39: 745–754, 1997).

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Correspondence to Saul I. Gass.

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An erratum to this article is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10898-008-9312-z.

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Gass, S.I. Comments on an ancient Greek racecourse: finding minimum width annuluses. J Glob Optim 42, 347–355 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10898-008-9295-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10898-008-9295-9

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