The finite Kakeya problem

Abstract

This beautiful question was posed by the Japanese mathematician Sōichi Kakeya in 1917. It gained immediate prominence and, together with its higher-dimensional analogs, helped initiate a whole new field, today called geometric measure theory. To be precise, by “turning around” Kakeya had a continuous motion in mind that returns the needle to the original position with its ends reversed, like a Samurai whirling his pole. Any such motion takes place in a compact subset of the plane.