← Back to Gallery

Kakeya Needle Set

The Kakeya Needle Problem

Question: What is the smallest area needed to rotate a unit needle 180° in the plane?

Surprise: Besicovitch proved in 1928 that it can be done in arbitrarily small area! The limiting "Besicovitch set" has measure zero but contains a unit segment in every direction.

Current Area
-
Circle Area
π/4 ≈ 0.785
Needle
Kakeya Set