a b s t r a c t
Let P be a finite set of points in general position in the plane. We evaluate the ratio between
the maximum area of an empty triangle of P and the area of the convex hull of P.
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1. Introduction
Let S be a finite set of points in the plane. We say that S is in general position if no three points of S are on a line. Denote
the convex hull of S by convS. We say that S is in convex position if each point of S is a vertex of convS.
We only deal with a finite set P of points in general position in the plane. If a subset of P with k elements is in convex
position, we simply call it a convex k-gon of P. A convex k-gon Q of P is said to be empty if no point of P lies inside convQ.
An empty convex k-gon of P is also called a k-hole of P.
Let P be a set of n points in general position in the plane. For any Q ⊆ P, we denote the area of convQ by A(Q). In [5], we
considered the ratio between the maximum area of 3-holes (empty triangles) T of P and the whole area A(P). Namely, let
F (P) = max
T⊂P
A(T )
A(P)
and define f(n) as the minimum value of F (P) over all sets P with n points. Then we obtained the following result where c
is a constant: