Maths encyclopedia and lessons  
Search

Mathematics Encyclopedia and Lessons

 
     
 

Lessons

Popular
Subjects

algebra
arithmetic
calculus
equations
geometry
differential equations
trigonometry
number theory
probability theory
more
 

References

applied mathematics
mathematical games
mathematicians
more
 
 

Hadwiger's theorem

In integral geometry (otherwise called geometric probability theory), Hadwiger's theorem states that the space of translation-invariant, finitely additive, not-necessarily-nonnegative set functions defined on finite unions of compact convex sets in Rn consists (up to scalar multiples) of one "measure" that is "homogeneous of degree k" for each k = 0, 1, 2, ..., n, and linear combinations of those "measures".

"Homogeneous of degree k" means that rescaling any set by any factor c > 0 multiplies the set's "measure" by ck. The one that is homogeneous of degree n is the ordinary n-dimensional volume. The one that is homogeneous of degree n − 1 is the "surface volume." The one that is homogeneous of degree 1 is a mysterious function called the mean width, a misnomer. The one that is homogeneous of degree 0 is the Euler characteristic.

The theorem was proved by Hugo Hadwiger, and led to further work on intrinsic volumes.

References

An account and a proof of Hadwiger's theorem may be found in Introduction to Geometric Probability by Daniel Klain and Gian-Carlo Rota, Cambridge University Press, 1997.

01-04-2007 01:18:14
The contents of this article are licensed from Wikipedia.org
under the GNU Free Documentation License. How to see transparent copy