Let S be a point set in the plane, and let 𝒫(S) and 𝒞(S) be the sets of all plane spanning paths and caterpillars on S. We study reconfiguration operations on 𝒫(S) and 𝒞(S). In particular, we prove that all of the commonly studied reconfigurations on plane spanning trees still yield connected reconfiguration graphs for caterpillars when S is in convex position. If S is in general position, we show that the rotation, compatible flip and flip graphs of 𝒞(S) are connected while the slide graph is sometimes disconnected, but always has a component of size 1/4(3ⁿ-1). We then study sizes of connected components in reconfiguration graphs of plane spanning paths. In this direction, we show that no component of size at most 7 can exist in the flip graph on 𝒫(S).

Richmond and Richmond (1997) proved the following theorem: If, in a metric space with at least five points, all triangles are degenerate, then the space is isometric to a subset of the real line. We prove that the hypothesis is unnecessarily strong: In a metric space on n points, fewer than 7n2/6 suitably placed degenerate triangles suffice. However, fewer than n(n−1)/2 degenerate triangles, no matter how cleverly placed, never suffice.