Paper by Erik D. Demaine

Reference:

Erik D. Demaine, Stefan Langerman, Joseph O'Rourke, and Jack Snoeyink, “Interlocked Open and Closed Linkages with Few Joints”, Computational Geometry: Theory and Applications, volume 26, number 1, August 2003, pages 37–45. Special issue of selected papers from the 13th Canadian Conference on Computational Geometry, 2001.

Abstract:

We study collections of linkages in 3-space that are interlocked in the sense that the linkages cannot be separated without one bar crossing through another. We explore pairs of linkages, one open chain and one closed chain, each with a small number of joints, and determine which can be interlocked. In particular, we show that a triangle and an open 4-chain can interlock, a quadrilateral and an open 3-chain can interlock, but a triangle and an open 3-chain cannot interlock.

Comments:

This paper is available from ScienceDirect.

Length:

The paper is 10 pages.

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Related papers:

InterlockedLinkages_CCCG2001 (Short Interlocked Linkages)

InterlockedLinkages_SoCG2002 (Interlocked Open Linkages with Few Joints)