Is Wandering Star impossible?
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I've taken a theoretical stab at Traveling Star but it seems insane, I proposed the same problem as a math problem where a point randomly reorganizes itself (+/-x,+/-y) then rotates itself, and you have to find it. The biggest problem with this is that although the rotation has a formula, the +/- x and y make the brute force take an eternity, and the stars "falling off the graph" makes it utterly ridiculous, even if I compare how many points are there I can't guarantee I know which points fall off the graph (I tried assuming the furthest points from the center fall off but that may not always be true). Does this problem require advanced knowledge of graph theory or something? I asked online and people said there's no simple formula to the Wandering Star merely from two graphs. I tried guessing the pattern from the 5 closest points to the center, but that still wasn't able to figure out the wandering star.
I tried another approach, since the problem said that the stars all rotate and move the same amount, which means they still retain the same distance to each other (uh... probably. I'll need to double check my logic on that). However, recognizing the distances between the stars still doesn't work because the wandering star might still have the same distance to another star!
not to mention the stars
fall
off
the
graph
(jesus why does this problem have so many constraints, it would be so much easier with all the stars on the graph)
Any hints?
Hi there and sorry for delayed answer!
Does this problem require advanced knowledge of graph theory or something?
Well, it's not primary school math definitely, but has nothing to do with graph theory :)
jesus why does this problem have so many constraints
This problem was supposed to reflect some real scientific-programming problem. Don't be discouraged and offended at the fact that real-life problems usually are not as trivial as those we solve in school :)
In real world pictures there are more problems - for example one of the photos may have better conditions and thus give few additional visible stars where other photo doesn't have them. And be sure, before we have such a pictures we need first filter out stars from the "noise".
they still retain the same distance to each other
As I remember, the correct approach really is something like this, so it is worth thinking more "in this direction".