A solution is obviously correct if it gives an x, y, and z of the peak such that when you use any of the four measured heights to find the slope, that slope finishes the equation:

(x-x')^2+(y-y')^2=m^2(z-z')^2
(or maybe it's 1/m^2 instead of m^2 -- irrelavent details)

and the other three measurements all fit into that equation with the given x, y, z, and m.

So, when given a solution, it will be clear that it is a solution. Is it clear that there's only one solution for the non-degenerate case? Not yet. But the goal is the same as for the colored points last week that we wanted to separate with (n-1)-dimensional hyperplanes -- can A solution (or even ALL solutions) be found? How?

In reply to Re^3: OT:Math problem: Grids and conical sections. by jeffguy
in thread OT:Math problem: Grids and conical sections. by BrowserUk

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":



  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.