We say a motion g brings a mobile convex body K into inner contact with a fixed body K0 if the image gK lies in K0 and shares a boundary point with K0; we speak of the inner contact being at the common boundary point. The mobile body K is said to roll freely in K0 if, corresponding to each boundary point x of K0 and each rotation R, there is a translation t such that RK + t = gK has inner contact with K0 at x.

A generalization and simplification of F. John's theorem on ellipsoids of minimum volume is proven. An application shows that for 1 ≤ p < 2, there is a subspace E of Lp and a λ > 1 such that 1E has no λ-unconditional decomposition in terms of rank one operators.

The isoperimetric problem in the Euclidean plane is completely solved for bounded, convex sets which are symmetric about the origin, and which contain no non-zero point of the integral lattice.

The isometries of the space of convex bodies of Ed with respect to the symmetric-difference metric are precisely the mappings generated by measurepreserving affinities of Ed.

Let S be a compact set in some euclidean space, such that every homo-thetic copy λS of S, with 0 < λ < 1, can be expressed as the intersection of some family of translates of S. It is shown that S has this property precisely when it is star-shaped, and is such that every point in the complement of S is visible from some point (necessarily on the boundary) of the kernel of S. Alternatively, S can be characterized as a compact star-shaped set, whose maximal convex subsets are cap-bodies of its kernel.

From time to time results about partitioning a given set into subsets have been established. (See for example [2], [3].) We consider here the reverse problem of forming the union of three sets in a certain best possible way. For simplicity we work in Euclidean n-space, En. Let mX denote the measure of the set X.

A convex polytope is a zonotope, if, and only if, its support function satisfies Hlawka's inequality. It follows that a finite dimensional real space with piecewise linear norm is isometrically isomorphic to a subspace of an L1 space, if, and only if, it has the quadrilateral property

Consider two convex bodies K, K′ in Euclidean space En and paint subsets β, β′ on the boundaries of K and K′. Now assume that K′ undergoes random motion in such a way that it touches K.

Let denote the class of all compact convex sets in Euclidean n-dimensional space En, and let y be the collection of those members of k which are centrally symmetric. The topology in is that induced by the Hausdorff metric.

A finite family (Ci)i ∊ I of at least two convex subsets of ℝn is said to have the intersection property provided that the set is non-empty for all families (ai)i ∊ I of points in ℝn. Previously, D. G. Larman [2, Theorem 3] has given a sufficient condition (which is not necessary) and an “almost” necessary condition (which is not sufficient) for to have the intersection property.

A quasi-simplex of ℝd is the closure of a Choquet simplex of ℝd. We characterize these quasi-simplices and we use this characterization to describe the line-free Choquet simplices of ℝd.

Let K, K′ be two centrally symmetric convex bodies in En, with their centres at the origin o. Let Vr denote the r-dimensional volume function. A problem of H. Busemann and C. M. Petty [1], see also, H. Busemann [2] asks:—

“If, for each (n − 1)-dimensional subspace L of En,

does it follow that

If n = 2 or, if K is an ellipsoid, then Busemann [3] shows that it does follow. However we will show that, at least for n ≥ 12, the result does not hold for general centrally symmetric convex bodies K, even if K′ is an ellipsoid. We do not construct the counter example explicitly; instead we use a probabilistic argument to establish its existence.

If K is a set in n-dimensional Euclidean space En, n ≥ 2, with non-empty interior, then a point p of En is called a pseudo-centre of K provided tha each two dimensional flat through p intersects K in a section, which is either empt or centrally symmetric about some point, not necessarily coinciding with p. A pseudo centre p is called a false centre of K, if K is not centrally symmetric about p. A dee result of Aitchison, Petty and Rogers [1] asserts that, if K is a convex body in E and p is a false centre of K, with p in the interior, int K, of K, then K is an ellipsoid Recently J. Höbinger [2] extended this theorem to any smooth convex body K witl a false centre p anywhere in En. At a recent meeting in Oberwolfach, he asked if the condition of smoothness can be omitted and the purpose of this note is to prove sucl a result.

Let Zn denote the set of all ordered n-tuples of integers. Let us call any finite subset of Zn a body in Zn, and any finite set of bodies in Zn a family in Zn.

Consider the following problem:

Give a decision procedure which for any family ℱ in Zn decides the following.

In [3] it was proved that every convex Borel (= Baire) set in a finite dimensional real Banach space can be obtained, starting from the closed (or compact) convex sets, by the iteration of countable increasing unions and countable decreasing intersections.

In §2 of this note we define some concepts of the descriptive theory of convex sets in locally convex spaces. We prove several theorems, which are analogous to the standard theorems of the descriptive theory of sets in topological spaces.

1. W. Blaschke's kinematic formula in the integral geometry of Euclidean n-dimensional space gives a weighted measure to the set of positions in which a mobile figure K1 overlaps a fixed figure K0. In the simplest case, K0 and K1 are compact convex sets and all positions are equally weighted; we give this in more detail. Let Wq denote the q-th Quermassintegral of K1: Steiner's formula for the volume V of the vector sum K1 + λB of K1 and a ball of radius λ defines these set functions by the equation

see [4; p. 214]. Blaschke's formula [4; p. 243] gives

as the measure, to within a normalization, of overlapping positions of K1 relative to K0.

Often stones on beaches pounded by waves wear into quite smooth, regular shapes, sometimes apparently ellipsoidal and even spherical [8]. This paper begins with an idealization of this wearing process for materials isotropic with respect to wear, then develops an equation governing the idealized process, and goes on to show that a stone which is initially convex and centrally symmetric tends to assume a spherical shape as a consequence of the governing equation. This conclusion is predicated on the assumption that the mathematical conditions describing the wearing process are those of a well-posed problem.

1. A convex body K in n-dimensional Euclidean space En (nonvoid, compact, and convex subset of En) is uniquely determined, up to translations, by its mixed volumes with other convex bodies. Therefore one might expect that relations between two convex bodies K and L correspond to relations between the mixed volumes of K, L, and other bodies. In this paper we give conditions, formulated in terms of mixed volumes, which are necessary and sufficient for a certain property of decomposability, namely, the property that L is a summand of K, and we solve some related problems.

Introduction. All the sets X considered in this paper are assumed to be compact convex sets in the Euclidean plane. We shall let K denote this class of sets. Problems concerning the division of such sets by three non-concurrent lines have been considered by Eggleston [1] on page 118 and by Grünbaum [2].

Asymmetry classes of convex bodies have been introduced and investigated by G. Ewald and G. C. Shephard [2], [3], [6]. These classes are defined as follows. Let denote the set of all convex bodies in n-dimensional Euclidean space ℝn. For K1, K2 ∊ write K1 ∼ K2 if there exist centrally symmetric convex bodies S1, S2 ∊ such that

where + denotes Minkowski addition. Then ∼ is an equivalence relation on and the corresponding classes are called asymmetry classes. The asymmetry class which contains K is denoted by [K].