Explanation
To explain the conjecture, we start with the observation that the equatorial circle of the unit 2-sphere
is a Riemannian circle S1 of length 2π and diameter π. More precisely, the Riemannian distance function of S1 is the restriction of the ambient Riemannian distance on the sphere. This property is not satisfied by the standard imbedding of the unit circle in the Euclidean plane, where a pair of opposite points are at distance 2, not π.
We consider all fillings of S1 by a surface, such that the restricted metric defined by the inclusion of the circle as the boundary of the surface is the Riemannian metric of a circle of length 2π. The inclusion of the circle as the boundary is then called a strongly isometric imbedding of the circle. In 1983 Gromov conjectured that the round hemisphere gives the "best" way of filling the circle among all filling surfaces.
Read more about this topic: Filling Area Conjecture
Famous quotes containing the word explanation:
“Young children constantly invent new explanations to account for complex processes. And since their inventions change from week to week, furnishing the “correct” explanation is not quite so important as conveying a willingness to discuss the subject. Become an “askable parent.””
—Ruth Formanek (20th century)
“The explanation of the propensity of the English people to portrait painting is to be found in their relish for a Fact. Let a man do the grandest things, fight the greatest battles, or be distinguished by the most brilliant personal heroism, yet the English people would prefer his portrait to a painting of the great deed. The likeness they can judge of; his existence is a Fact. But the truth of the picture of his deeds they cannot judge of, for they have no imagination.”
—Benjamin Haydon (1786–1846)
“To develop an empiricist account of science is to depict it as involving a search for truth only about the empirical world, about what is actual and observable.... It must involve throughout a resolute rejection of the demand for an explanation of the regularities in the observable course of nature, by means of truths concerning a reality beyond what is actual and observable, as a demand which plays no role in the scientific enterprise.”
—Bas Van Fraassen (b. 1941)