>I must have been so engrossed in the lottery discussion that i missed
>something. I appreciate the discussion that this doesn't have to
>happen at the North Pole, but i didn't think the question was where
>on earth this could occur; I thought it was what theorem is
>represented? Did someone give an answer?
First, please excuse me for taking the original discussion in a
completely different direction.
Second, before I so rudely did so, I attempted an answer to the
original question which was:
>What calculus theorem is represented by the riddle, "A man builds a
>rectangular house that has southern exposure on all four sides.
>Where does he live??
My answer (attempt) was:
>I don't remember the technical name (or if there even is one), but
>I've heard this called the "hairy ball theorem". At least I think
>this is it. The theorem goes something like: If you have a ball
>with an infinite number of hairs covering the surface, it is
>impossible to "comb" the hairs so that none are perpendicular to the
>surface. At least one will always be perpendicular In it's more
>mathematical form, this is a theorem on vectors. In this form, the
>perpendicular hair is the house located at the north pole.
I haven't heard any replies to this statement, so I have no idea if I
am correct. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I'm worried
that I may indeed be incorrect. Has anyone heard of this theorem and
am I making any sense?