All Questions
Tagged with packing-and-covering discrete-geometry
70 questions
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Packing problems where parts of objects are allowed to intersect
I'm interested in packing problems where the objects are allowed to intersect.
For a simple example, consider stacking 1×2 tiles on a nxn chessboard. Each 1×2 tiles consists of part X and Y (both 1×1)....
- 11
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0
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149
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Do the $\ell^{\infty}$ and $\ell^1$ norms yield minimal doubling constants amongst all norms on $\mathbb{R}^n$?
Setting:
Let $X:=\mathbb{R}^n$ for some positive integer $n$. For each $1\le p\le \infty$ let $d_p$ denote the metric induced by the $\ell^p_n$ norm thereon.
Note that, the doubling constant of a ...
- 5,405
5
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1
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268
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Is the maximal packing density of identical circles in a circle always an algebraic number?
There is a lot of interest in the maximal density of equal circle packing in a circle. And I thought that knowing whether or not the solution is always algebraic or not would be useful.
My original ...
- 53
6
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1
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413
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How many unit cubes are needed to 'hide' a unit cube fully in 3D?
Question: What is the smallest number of nonoverlapping unit cubes that can hide a unit cube C - in the sense that every ray emanating from the boundary of C meets the interior or the boundary of one ...
- 5,979
11
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1
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403
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Smallest sphere containing three tetrahedra?
What is the smallest possible radius of a sphere which contains 3 identical plastic tetrahedra with side length 1?
- 111
1
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1
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63
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Covering convex regions with disks optimizing on area and perimeter
Question: Are there planar convex regions $R$ and integers $n$ with the property: if $R$ is covered by $n$ disks of possibly different sizes such that (1) the total area of the covering disks is ...
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2
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0
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84
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Another variant of the Malfatti problem
We try to add to A Variant of the Malfatti Problem
As stated in the Wikipedia entry on Malfatti circles, it is an open problem to decide, given a number $n$ and any triangle, whether a greedy method ...
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137
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A comparison between packing and covering as classes of problems
We continue from Bounds for the Dispersal Problem in convex regions and Bounds for minimax facility location in a convex region
Let us consider the classes of problems:
Given a convex region $R$ and ...
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2
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1
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105
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The problem of finding the smallest number of copies of a certain shape that can be placed into a space to make fitting another copy impossible
Packing problems often ask for the largest number of some identical shape that can fit in a given space without overlapping, if they are placed optimally.
I'm interested in the opposite question:
Q. ...
- 121
1
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19
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Regular covering of planar pointsets with convex polygons
Question:
What is known about the problem of covering a finite set of $\mathbb{P}$ of points in the plane with convex polygons
that have the same number $m$ of points from $\mathbb{P}$ as corners
and ...
- 13.2k
5
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1
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230
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Which pyramids fill space?
Let us define a pyramid as a convex polyhedron with one quadrilateral face and four triangular faces.
Question: How many pyramids (or families of pyramids) are known that can fill 3D space without ...
- 5,979
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144
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Approximation of a convex shape in the $d$-dimensional Euclidean space for $d\gg 1$
We are given a convex shape $C$ lying inside the hypercube $[0,1]^d$ in the $d$-dimensional Euclidean space. Let the volume of $C$ be $\tfrac12$ (I guess nothing changes for any other fixed constant ...
- 1,677
2
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1
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151
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On rigid packings of the plane with a constraint
This post continues Thinnest rigid packings of the plane
A packing of the plane with copies of any shape is called rigid (or "stable") if every unit is fixed by its neighbors, i.e., no unit ...
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Which pentagon gives least packing density?
We extend Which convex pentagon gives least packing density? by going from convex pentagons to general ones.
Question: Which pentagon gives the least packing density on the Euclidean plane?
Note: All ...
- 5,979
3
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1
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177
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On the thinnest cover of the plane by a given planar convex region
Is the following claim valid?
Claim: Given any planar convex region C, the thinnest cover of the plane with copies of C cannot have any region where more than 2 copies overlap. In general, the ...
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87
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packing numbers of the unit balls in Euclidean spaces and the dimensions
Let $k$, $m$ and $n$ be positive integers. Let $r$ be a positive real number.
The $n$-th ordered $r$-disk configuration space on the Euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^{mk}$ is
$$
F_r(\mathbb{R}^{mk},...
- 1,990
2
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1
answer
164
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Packing densities of non-centrally symmetric planar convex regions
Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoothed_octagon
Background: The smoothed octagon is conjectured to have the lowest maximum packing density of the plane of all centrally symmetric convex ...
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106
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A Variant of the Malfatti Problem
See the Wikipedia entry on Malfatti circles for an introduction to Malfatti's problem.
The above page also states that for $n >3$, the question of whether a greedy method (at each step, the method ...
- 5,979
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2
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312
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Which convex pentagon gives least packing density?
Among all convex pentagons, does the regular pentagon give least packing density?
Further question: For each $n > 6$, is the regular $n$-gon the minimum of packing density?
An analogous question ...
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1
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3
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146
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On packing axisymmetric bodies in 3D
Consider any 3D body with an axis of rotational symmetry (e.g. cone, cylinder...) and packing the 3d space efficiently with infinitely many copies of this body. Is the following claim valid?
Claim: ...
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3
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1
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171
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Covering radius of a lattice from relevant vectors
Let $L$ be an $n-$dimensional lattice. The Voronoi region of $L$ is given by
$$
\mathcal{V}(L)=\big\{x\in\mathbb{R}^n~|~ \|x\|_2\leq \|x-v\|_2~\forall v\in L\setminus\{0\}\big\}.
$$
Considering the ...
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125
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Bound on covering number for overparametrized manifold
I am trying to wrap my head around the following problem:
I have $p$ real parameters $\boldsymbol{\theta} \in \Theta = [0, 2\pi)^p$ that parametrize functions $f(\boldsymbol{\theta}) \in f(\Theta)$ ...
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4
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426
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Can we almost cover any shape in the plane by disjoint/tangent disks of prescribed radii?
This is a cross-post.
Let $(a_n)_{n \in \mathbb{Z}}$ be some given, strictly increasing sequence of positive numbers, such that $\lim_{n \to -\infty} a_n=0,\lim_{n \to +\infty} a_n=+\infty$.
Let $\...
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90
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On Covering a Planar Region with Copies of a Tile of Different Shape
Background: Consider trying to cover the largest possible scaled copy of a planar region $C$ with specified shape with n instances of a tile $T$ of specified shape and size. Several families of this ...
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1
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243
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Does there exist a scale invariant random packing of circles in the plane?
I want to construct a scale invariant random packing of the plane with circles.
Here is a way to construct a rotationally invariant, but not scale invariant random packing of the plane with circles:
...
- 1,054
22
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1
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886
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Happy ants never leave compact domain?
I am curious if the following seemingly simple question has an easy answer?
Consider an ant population of $N$ ants that lives in $\mathbb R^2$. Each ant can be labeled by some coordinate $x\in \mathbb ...
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1
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1k
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Elementary precise estimate of the covering number of euclidean balls by hypercubes
I am looking for a straightforward way to upper bound the covering number of a $d$-dimensional euclidean ball by $\ell_\infty$-balls of radius $\varepsilon$, which I will call cubes of sidelength $2\...
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131
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Optimal way to group points in the plane into clusters
Consider a strictly decreasing sequence $d = (d_k)_{k\ge 1}$ of distances in $(0,1)$. Given a constant $C>2$, we say that $d$ has the $C$-grouping property if any finite non-empty subset $S$ (of ...
- 1,761
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2
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279
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Combinatorial optimization problem with interdependent constraints on points in $[0,1]$
We are given a set $S$ of $n$ real numbers in $[0,1]$, with $0,1\in S$, and a value $\alpha\in(0,1/2)$. For each ordered triplet $(i,j,k)$ of values contained in $S$ (with $i\le j \le k$), we define ...
- 1,677
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Packing in uniform domains
Given $N$ points $X:=(x_i)_{i \in \{1,..,N\}}$, we now define a score function $S:X \rightarrow \mathbb{N}$ that is $S(X)= \sum_{i=1}^N S(x_i)$ where the score of $S(x_i)$ is
$$S(x_i) = 2* \vert \{x_j;...
- 536
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313
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Trade-off between covering number, ball radius and diameter of $d$-dimensional shapes
Given any $d$-dimensional shape $X$ in the Euclidean space, let $\ell(X)$ be the length of the longest line segment connecting two points of $X$. How can we prove the following statement?
There exists ...
- 1,677
3
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0
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134
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Two questions on counterexamples to Borsuk's conjecture and ball-packings
In 1933 Karol Borsuk conjectured the following
Can every bounded subset $E$ of $\mathbb{R}^d$ be partitioned into $(d+1)$ sets, each of which has a smaller diameter than $E$?
Whilst new to this ...
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Existence of a honeycomb composed by nearly-hyperspherical $d$-dimensional cells having the same shape and size
Let $\mathcal{H}$ the class of all honeycombs composed by $d$-dimensional cells $C$ having all the same shape and size in a $d$-dimensional space $\mathcal{S}$.
Let $s(C)$ and $\ell(C)$ be ...
- 1,677
1
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1
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138
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Packing L's in Tans and L's in L's
I'm a young researcher and I'm pretty new in this field. I want to work on packing problem "L's in Tans" and "L's in L's" as presented on https://erich-friedman.github.io/packing ....
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0
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184
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Fitting $\frac1n\times\frac1{n+1}$ rectangles into the unit square [duplicate]
Consider the set of rectangles $r_n | n \in \Bbb N$ such that rectangle $r_n$ has shape $\frac1n\times\frac1{n+1}$. The total area composed by one copy of each $r_n$ as $n$ ranges from $1$ to ...
- 1,247
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0
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359
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Can 4-space be partitioned into Klein bottles?
It is known that $\mathbb{R}^3$ can be partitioned into disjoint circles,
or into disjoint unit circles, or into congruent copies of a real-analytic curve
(Is it possible to partition $\mathbb R^3$ ...
- 151k
7
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0
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44
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Inefficient covering by translates
While trying to answer this question, I arrived at another question:
How many translates of $\{0,1\}^n$ does it take to cover $\mathbb F_3^n$?
The broader context is: consider a set $S$ and a ...
- 23.2k
1
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103
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Upper bounds on $\epsilon$-covers of arbitrary compact manifolds
Let $M \subset \mathbb{R}^d$ be a compact $k$-dimensional manifold embedded in $\mathbb{R}^d$. Let $\mathcal{N}(\epsilon)$ denote the size of the minimum $\epsilon$-cover $P$ of $M$, that is for every ...
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How to pack 27 $a\times b\times c$ blocks into a cube of side $a+b+c$ with some kind of symmetry?
Recently I stumbled on the problem quoted here about a geometric proof of the AM-GM inequality $$(a_1+\cdots+a_n)^n\ge n^n a_1\cdots a_n$$ by packing $n^n$ rectangular $ n$-dimensional boxes of sides $...
- 13.4k
7
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1
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117
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Packing points in a lattice
Let $L$ be the square or triangular lattice in the plane, with nearest neighbors having distance 1. Has anyone studied the problem of finding the maximum (okay, supremum) density achieved by a subset ...
- 19.7k
1
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0
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278
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Sphere packings with antipodal (unequal) spheres
Let $\|\cdot\|_2$ denote the Euclidean norm, let $\langle \cdot, \cdot\rangle$ denote the standard dot product, and let $\mathcal{S}^{d-1} = \{\mathbf{x} \in \mathbb{R}^d: \|\mathbf{x}\|_2 = 1\}$ ...
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2
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470
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Density of a saturated random packing of congruent circles
The problem of the expected density of a saturated random packing of unit circles in the plane can be described as follows.
In a circular region $C$ of a large radius pick a point at random and draw ...
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11
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2
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455
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Dodecahedral rolling distance
Let a dodecahedron sit on the plane,
with one face's vertices on an origin-centered unit circle.
Fix the orientation so that the edge whose indices are $(1,2)$ is horizontal.
For any $p \in \mathbb{R}...
- 151k
3
votes
1
answer
186
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packing with special sets in high dimensional Euclidean space
Let $\lambda$ be Lebesgue measure on $[0,1]$. For $\mathbf{x}=(x_1,x_2,..,x_k)\in[0,1]^k$, define $$A(\mathbf{x}):=\{(y_1,\dots,y_k)\in [0,1]^k: \text{there exist intervals }I_1,\dots,I_k \text{ in }[...
- 75
1
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0
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71
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Packing the box $[0,X^{\delta_1}] \times [0,X^{\delta_2}] \times [0,X^{\delta_3}] \subseteq \mathbb{R}^3$ with cubes
Let $0 < \delta_1 \leq \delta_2 \leq \delta_3 \leq 1$, and consider the box $B := [0,X^{\delta_1}] \times [0,X^{\delta_2}] \times [0,X^{\delta_3}] \subseteq \mathbb{R}^3$. Let $X > 3$ say. Is it ...
- 579
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0
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87
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lower bound for sum of (squared) distances under a minimum distance restriction
I am trying to solve a packing problem in discrete geometry and it would be useful to know the answer to the following problem.
Let $A_1$, $A_2$,..., $A_n$ be $n$ points in the Euclidean plane $\...
- 231
9
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1
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274
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Integer sets with forbidden differences
Given a finite set $S$ of positive integers, and a positive integer $n$, let $F(n,S)$ be the largest possible cardinality of a subset of {$1,2,\dots,n$} no two of whose elements differ by a number in $...
- 19.7k
1
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0
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124
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The smallest disk containing all cirular arcs
In a comment to my recent question about covering segments by a disk, Gerhard Paseman has suggested a generalisation: replacing the segments of the original $n$-gon by a simple closed (say, convex) ...
- 13.4k
16
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5
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712
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The smallest disk containing all sides of an $n$-gon
Start with a regular $n$-gon of side 1 and consider its sides as open segments that can be moved around in the plane, allowing only translations. Two segments may not intersect.
What is the radius ...
- 13.4k
13
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5
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1k
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Packing obtuse vectors in $\mathbb{R}^d$
I came across this attractive theorem:
Theorem. In $\mathbb{R}^d$, there can be at most $d+1$ vectors that
form an obtuse angle with one another.
This was proved1 as a corollary of a lemma about ...
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