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  1. Newsgroups: sci.math
  2. Path: sparky!uunet!cis.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!agate!doc.ic.ac.uk!daresbury!mrccrc!warwick!pavo.csi.cam.ac.uk!emu.pmms.cam.ac.uk!rgep
  3. From: rgep@emu.pmms.cam.ac.uk (Richard Pinch)
  4. Subject: Re: Geometrical parking problem.
  5. Message-ID: <1992Nov18.101107.29182@infodev.cam.ac.uk>
  6. Sender: news@infodev.cam.ac.uk (USENET news)
  7. Nntp-Posting-Host: emu.pmms.cam.ac.uk
  8. Organization: Department of Pure Mathematics, University of Cambridge
  9. References: <1992Nov17.225821.6579@augean.eleceng.adelaide.edu.AU>
  10. Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 10:11:07 GMT
  11. Lines: 12
  12.  
  13. In article <1992Nov17.225821.6579@augean.eleceng.adelaide.edu.AU> 
  14. dabbott@augean.eleceng.adelaide.edu.AU (Derek Abbott) writes:
  15. >
  16. >A car of length L reverses into a parking space without touching the kerb.
  17. >Has anyone calculated the minimum theoretical length of the parking space?
  18.  
  19. Yes, it's the length of the car.  The commutator of two rotations is
  20. a translation, so you can drive sideways by making very small moves of
  21. the form LRLR.
  22.  
  23. Richard Pinch
  24.  
  25.