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  • Darkened skies
  • Interesting times

In the 1950's, Ernst Straus asked a seemingly simple problem. Imagine a dark room with lots of turns and side-passages, where all the walls are covered in mirrors - just like the Hall of Mirrors in an old-fashioned fun-fair. Is it true that if someone lights a match somewhere in the room, then wherever you stand in the rest of the room (even down a side-passage) you can see a reflection of the match?

Francesco Mezzadri from Italy and Nina Snaith from Canada are PhD students in Applied Mathematics at the University of Bristol. They are also affiliated with Hewlett Packard's BRIMS Laboratory. PASS Maths went to visit them there.