Questions tagged [packing-and-covering]
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201
questions
96
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7
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Can we cover the unit square by these rectangles?
The following question was a research exercise (i.e. an open problem) in R. Graham, D.E. Knuth, and O. Patashnik, "Concrete Mathematics", 1988, chapter 1.
It is easy to show that
$$\sum_{1 \...
60
votes
4
answers
5k
views
Is there a mathematical and information theoretic explanation for this cube packing phenomenon?
I saw this unintuitive result on dice packing:
A jumble of thousands of cubic dice, agitated by an oscillating
rotation, can rapidly become completely ordered, a result that is hard
to produce with ...
35
votes
3
answers
2k
views
The kissing number of a square, cube, hypercube?
How many nonoverlapping unit squares can (nonoverlappingly) touch one unit square?
By "nonoverlapping" I mean: not sharing an interior point.
By "touch" I mean: sharing a boundary point.
&...
35
votes
1
answer
768
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What measurable quantity can constrain the number of odors human can discriminate?
This is not a very typical MO question, but I hope you bear with me. It concerns a recent disagreement in the biology literature about how many different odors humans can discriminate. The authors of ...
27
votes
2
answers
877
views
Careless packing
The sequence $\frac{1}{2}, \frac{1}{2\cdot 2}, \frac{1}{3\cdot 4}, \frac{1}{4\cdot 6}, \frac{1}{5\cdot 8}, \frac{1}{6\cdot 10},\ldots$ has a curious property, as follows:
a) the series with these ...
26
votes
3
answers
4k
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Can squares of side 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, … be packed into three quarters of a unit square?
My question is prompted by this illustration from Eugenia Cheng’s book Beyond Infinity, where it appears in reference to the Basel problem.
Is it known whether the infinite set of squares of side $\...
25
votes
0
answers
343
views
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$ ...
22
votes
1
answer
880
views
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 ...
22
votes
0
answers
377
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What is the covering density of a very thin annulus? Is it $\frac{\pi\sqrt{51\sqrt{17}-107}}{16}$?
Take some very small $\epsilon>0$, and consider the annulus/ring given by the set $\{(r,\theta)\ |\ 1-\epsilon\le r\le1\}\subset \mathbb{R}^2$.
We wish to place translated copies of this annulus ...
21
votes
1
answer
2k
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Coiling Rope in a Box
What is the longest rope length L of radius r that can fit into a box?
The rope is a smooth curve with a tubular
neighborhood of radius r, such that the rope does not
self-penetrate. For an open ...
20
votes
1
answer
3k
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A circle packing conjecture
Consider $n$ circles with variable radii $r_1,\ldots, r_n$ that pack inside a fixed circle of unit radius. In other words, all $n$ variable-radius circles are contained in the unit radius circle and ...
20
votes
3
answers
3k
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How many unit squares can you pack into a rectangle with nearly integer side lengths?
Earlier today, somebody asked what looks like a homework problem, but admits the following reading which I think is interesting:
Suppose $a_1,\dots, a_n$ are positive integers, and $\varepsilon$ is ...
19
votes
2
answers
908
views
What is the largest possible thirteenth kissing sphere?
It is well-known that it is impossible to arrange 13 spheres of unit radius all tangent to another unit sphere without their interiors intersecting. This was apparently the subject of disagreement ...
18
votes
4
answers
1k
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Pennies on a carpet problem
I recently read the following "open problem" titled "Pennies on a carpet" in "An Introduction To Probability and Random Processes" by Baclawski and Rota (page viii of book, page 10 of following pdf),...
16
votes
5
answers
704
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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 ...
16
votes
1
answer
798
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Blocking visibility with cylinders
Suppose you have a supply of infinite-length, opaque, unit-radius cylinders,
and you would like to block all visibility from a point
$p \in \mathbb{R}^3$ to infinity with as few cylinders as possible.
...
13
votes
5
answers
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 ...
13
votes
2
answers
3k
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How many vertices/edges/faces at most for a convex polyhedron that tiles space?
I wonder if this problem has already been examined before:
Consider a convex polyhedron that tiles $\mathbb R^3$. What is the maximum of vertices/edges/faces that such a polyhedron can have?
...
13
votes
1
answer
3k
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Is there a version of König's theorem for tripartite 3-graphs?
I would like to know if there exists a version of König's theorem for tripartite $3$-graphs.
In other words, let $G = (V,T)$ be a tripartite $3$-graph. That is, $V$ is a set of vertices (with $V$ ...
13
votes
2
answers
1k
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Average degree of contact graph for balls in a box
Imagine you dump congruent, hard, frictionless balls in a box,
letting gravity compress the balls into a stable configuration
(I believe such configurations are called
jammed.)
Assume the box ...
13
votes
0
answers
638
views
Covering number estimates for Hölder balls
Let $\alpha \in (0,1]$, $r>0$ and $L>0$, and positive intwgers $n$ and $m$. The Arzela-Ascoli Theorem guarantees that the set $X(\alpha,L,r)$ of $f:[-1,1]^n\rightarrow [-r,r]^m$ with $\alpha$-...
13
votes
0
answers
733
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$\epsilon$-nets with respect to the cut norm
The cut norm $||A||\_C$ of a real matrix $A = (a_{i,j}) \in \mathcal{R}^{n\times n}$ is the maximum over all $I \subseteq [n], J \subseteq [n]$ of the quantity $\left|\sum_{i \in I, j \in J}a_{i,j}\...
12
votes
3
answers
2k
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Equitably distributed curve on a sphere
Let $\gamma=\gamma(L)$ be a
simple (non-self-intersecting) closed curve of length $L$
on the unit-radius sphere $S$.
So if $L=2\pi$, $\gamma$ could be a great circle.
I am seeking the most equitably ...
12
votes
1
answer
1k
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Cobounded ⇒ cocompact?
Assume $\Gamma$ acts by isometries on a separable Hilbert space $H$, and
$$\operatorname{diam} H/\Gamma\le 1.$$
Is it true that $H/\Gamma$ is compact?
Stupid example. Assume the action of $\...
11
votes
4
answers
446
views
Sequential addition of points on a circle, optimizing asymptotic packing radius
Suppose I have to put $N$ points $x_1, x_2, \ldots, x_N$ on the circle $S^1$ of length 1 so as to achieve the largest minimum separation (packing radius). The optimal solution is the equally spaced ...
11
votes
2
answers
447
views
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}...
11
votes
1
answer
388
views
Smallest sphere containing three tetrahedra?
What is the smallest possible radius of a sphere which contains 3 identical plastic tetrahedra with side length 1?
11
votes
0
answers
213
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Electrons on a pancake ellipsoid
The problems of minimizing the potential energy of electrons
on a sphere, or maximizing the smallest distance between the electrons,
have been well-studied.
E.g., see the
earlier MO question
"...
10
votes
4
answers
620
views
Packing and isoperimetrics
Suppose a manufacturer bottles small units of liquid and ships them via very large trucks.
If the transportation cost nothing, spherical bottles would minimize the packaging cost (isoperimetric ...
10
votes
2
answers
859
views
Packing twelve spherical caps to maximize tangencies
Suppose that $v_i$, for $i \in \{1, 2, \ldots 11, 12\}$, are twelve unit length vectors
based at the origin in $R^3$. Suppose that $|v_i - v_j| \geq 1$ for all $i
\neq j$. What arrangement of the $...
10
votes
1
answer
488
views
Packing regular tetrahedra of edge length 1 with a vertex at the origin in a unit sphere
Consider the following problem:
How many regular tetrahedra of edge length 1 can be packed inside a unit sphere with each one has a vertex located at the origin?
The answer is at least 20, forming ...
10
votes
1
answer
545
views
Are packing-homogeneous spaces homogeneous?
Given a metric space (M,d) define the packing function P(x,R,r) to be the maximum number of non-intersecting balls of radius r with centers in the ball B(x,R). Let’s call M packing-homogeneous if the ...
10
votes
0
answers
493
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Which finite sets could be packed into a square?
This question is inspired by an interesting visualization of the finite levels of von Neumann's hierarchy on Adam P. Goucher's blog, Complex Projective 4-Space.
The problem starts with a two-...
10
votes
0
answers
492
views
Rectangology and squareology
I thought that rectangles were simple, and squares even simpler. Until my research has led me to several questions about rectangles and squares, which I can't solve.
I started by posting this question ...
9
votes
3
answers
519
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Mutually tangent ellipsoids in 3 space
I recently heard a claim that for any n, it is possible to arrange n ellipsoids in 3 space such that each pair of ellipsoids is kissing. Is this true, and if so, how?
Edit: By kissing, I mean that I ...
9
votes
2
answers
8k
views
How to pack 3D boxes into a bigger box?
Given a box of given size $L\times M\times N$ and a list of smaller boxes of given sizes $(l_i,m_i,n_i)$, decide whether the smaller boxes altogether fit into the big box (and produce such a packing ...
9
votes
2
answers
422
views
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 ...
9
votes
1
answer
276
views
Thinnest covering of the plane by regular pentagons
Q. Is it known what is the thinnest covering of the infinite plane by regular pentagons?
By covering I mean every point of the plane is covered.
By thinnest I mean the proportion of the plane covered ...
9
votes
1
answer
200
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Which unimodular lattices $L\subset \mathbb R^2$ minimize $f_t(L):=\sum_{ v\in L} e^{-t \|v\|_2}$? (for parameters $t>0$)
$\DeclareMathOperator\SL{SL}\DeclareMathOperator\SO{SO}$Consider the lattices in $\SL(2,\mathbb R)(\mathbb Z^2)$ up to rotation. The space of such lattices can be identified with the modular surface $\...
9
votes
1
answer
267
views
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 $...
9
votes
1
answer
652
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Triangle (constrained number, rather than shape) packing?
Are there any interesting results on optimal packings in the plane using a fixed number of triangles (without a fixed size or shape constraint)?
For instance, what's the maximum area packing of the ...
9
votes
0
answers
248
views
Randomly placing nonoverlapping unit cuboids
Suppose one places unit cuboids of dimension $d$ with min-corners
uniformly distributed to lie in $[0,n]^d$, but with cuboid (strict) overlap forbidden.
At some point, the region is "saturated," ...
9
votes
0
answers
171
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Characterizing the norms on $\mathbb{R}^3$ coming from Platonic solids
Recall that any sufficiently nice compact centrally symmetric convex body in $B \subset \mathbb{R}^3$ gives rise to a Banach norm on $\mathbb{R}^3$ which has $B$ as its unit ball.
Is there a nice ...
9
votes
0
answers
192
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Asymptotics of packing
Define $m(n,k,l)$ as the maximal size of a family $k$-element subsets of $[n]$ having the property that the intersection of every two sets is less than $l$.
As stated on wikipedia, in 1985 Rödl ...
8
votes
3
answers
1k
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How many non-orthogonal vectors fit into a complex vector space?
I am sitting on a problem, where I have a complex vector space of dimension $D$ and a set of normalized vectors $\{v_k\}$, $k\in\{1,2,\dots,N\}$ that are supposed to satisfy
$$\lvert\langle v_j\vert ...
8
votes
1
answer
678
views
Randomly covering a sphere
Let $S$ be the $n$-dimensional unit sphere in the Euclidean space. Further,
let $X_1,\ldots,X_k$ and $Y_1,\ldots,Y_m$ be iid $S$-valued random variables with common (unknown) distribution $\mu$. With $...
8
votes
1
answer
691
views
Upper bound for tetrahedron packing?
There have been several recent advances on packing regular tetrahedra in $\mathbb{R}^3$. All the results I've seen have been lower bounds -- first John Conway and Sal Torquato showed that there ...
8
votes
2
answers
1k
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VC dimension, fat-shattering dimension, and other complexity measures, of a class BV functions
I wish to show that a function which is "essentially constant" (defined shortly) can't be a good classifier (machine learning). For this i need to estimate the "complexity" of such a class of ...
8
votes
1
answer
217
views
Translative packing constant strictly larger than lattice packing constant
Simply put, my question is this: what is the smallest dimension, if any,
where we can know for sure that a convex body exists whose translative
packing constant is strictly larger than its lattice ...
8
votes
2
answers
563
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Coiling Rope in a Box: Decidable?
Is the problem Coiling Rope in a Box decidable? To be specific, is this decidable?
Given $L > 0$ and $r \in (0,\frac{1}{2})$,
both rational,
can a rope of length $L$ and radius $r$
fit ...