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Problem #214: Let $S\subset \mathbb{R}^2$ be such that no two points in...

Let $S\subset \mathbb{R}^2$ be such that no two points in $S$ are distance $1$ apart. Must the complement of $S$ contain four points which form a...

Problem Statement

Let $S\subset \mathbb{R}^2$ be such that no two points in $S$ are distance $1$ apart. Must the complement of $S$ contain four points which form a unit square?
Categories: Geometry Distances

Progress

The answer is yes, proved by Juhász [Ju79], who proved more generally that the complement of $S$ must contain a congruent copy of any set of four points. This is not true for arbitrarily large sets of points, but perhaps is still true for any set of five points.

Source: erdosproblems.com/214 | Last verified: January 14, 2026

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