The number of transversals to line segments in R3

Hervé Brönnimann, Hazel Everett, Sylvain Lazard, Frank Sottile, and Sue Whitesides.

We describe completely the connected components of common transversals to a collection of n line segments in R3. We show that n > 2 line segments in R3 admit 0, 1, ..., n or infinitely many line transversals. In the latter case, the transversals form up to n connected components.
Companion web page.
Here are some pictures from this project:

       
       


The manuscript in postscript. In PDF.
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