Squares in Squares
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Squares in Squares
1–10 of 28 posts
Re: Squares in Squares
#2In case you want a challenge, 11 is the smaller that has a solution that has not been proven to be optimal.
Re: Squares in Squares
#3The triangular table view is fascinating. It looks like the periodic table. I wonder if there are number-theoretic lemmas (or at least conjectures?) about what "family" the optimal packing for a given number falls into (like diamond, diagonal strip, two blobs, etc). I didn't see anything when skimming the survey paper linked at the bottom of the site, but I'm sure there's a lot more literature here.
Re: Squares in Squares
#4Looks like Hiroshi Nagamochi did all the boring work.
Re: Squares in Squares
#5I love 130. "You thought I'm just a 2-wide strip? SIKE, here's 8-degree polynomial!"
Re: Squares in Squares
#6Why 4 is trivial but 6 had to be proved?
Re: Squares in Squares
#7if, like me, you're a non-native english and speaker don't immediately understand what this is about: the page shows for each `n` what's the minimum `s` such that `n` squares with side of length 1 fit in a square with side of length `s`.
what I'm curious about though is what a proof for something like this looks like. and why does it need a proof? not to mention the randomness of some of the `n`s. Math is most of the time beatiful and whenever I see something like `n=11` I think "it looks wrong so it must be wrong" yet it has a proof.
Re: Squares in Squares
#8Why 4 is trivial but 6 had to be proved?
The 4 packing takes up 100% of its square; it's trivially optimal. The 6 packing only takes up 2/3 of it, so it's not necessarily obvious that you can't do better.
Re: Squares in Squares
#9Some of these are wild. You expect to see something systematic, but they have little gaps between oddly placed squares in the center.
Re: Squares in Squares
#10Very relevant comic:
https://thejenkinscomic.wordpress.com/2024/12/01/brady-bunch...