Related papers: On the Cookie Monster Problem
Suppose we have $n$ dice, each with $s$ faces (assume $s\geq n$). On the first turn, roll all of them, and remove from play those that rolled an $n$. Roll all of the remaining dice. In general, if at a certain turn you are left with $k$…
The problem of clustering a set of points moving on the line consists of the following: given positive integers n and k, the initial position and the velocity of n points, find an optimal k-clustering of the points. We consider two…
This paper suveys different variants of the following problem: Given a convex set $K$ and a sequence $\{C_i\}$ of convex bodies in $E^n$, is it possible to pack the sequence of bodies in $K$ or cover $K$ with the bodies? Algorithmic…
Given an array A of n real numbers, the maximum subarray problem is to find a contiguous subarray which has the largest sum. The k-maximum subarrays problem is to find k such subarrays with the largest sums. For the 1-maximum subarray the…
The kissing number problem asks for the maximal number k(n) of equal size nonoverlapping spheres in n-dimensional space that can touch another sphere of the same size. This problem in dimension three was the subject of a famous discussion…
The aim in packing problems is to decide if a given set of pieces can be placed inside a given container. A packing problem is defined by the types of pieces and containers to be handled, and the motions that are allowed to move the pieces.…
In the picture-hanging puzzle we are to hang a picture so that the string loops around $n$ nails and the removal of any nail results in a fall of the picture. We show that the length of a sequence representing an element in the free group…
The Tower of Hanoi game is a classical puzzle in recreational mathematics (Lucas 1883) which also has a strong record in pure mathematics. In a borderland between these two areas we find the characterization of the minimal number of moves,…
We study two models of the Majority problem. We are given n balls and an unknown coloring of them with two colors. We can ask sets of balls of size k as queries, and in the so-called General Model the answer to a query shows if all the…
The minimum constraint removal problem seeks to find the minimum number of constraints, i.e., obstacles, that need to be removed to connect a start to a goal location with a collision-free path. This problem is NP-hard and has been studied…
The pancake problem is concerned with sorting a permutation (a stack of pancakes of different diameter) using only prefix reversals (spatula flips). Although the problem description belies simplicity, an exact formula for the maximum number…
Let $s(n)$ be the number of different remainders $n \bmod k$, where $1 \leq k \leq \lfloor n/2 \rfloor$. This rather natural sequence is sequence A283190 in the OEIS and while some basic facts are known, it seems that surprisingly it has…
A ``k-rule" is a sequence A=((A_n,B_n):n<omega) of pairwise disjoint sets B_n, each of cardinality at most k, where A_n is a subset of B_n. A set X of natural numbers (a ``real'') follows a rule A if for infinitely many n we have that the…
1. We first show a lower bound of 2N/3-1 for the connected minimum queen domination (or cover) problem on the NXN chessboard - the upper bound is only 2 higher at most and is easy to show. 2. We then define the k-colored connected minimum…
In this paper we consider the problem of packing a fixed number of identical circles inside the unit circle container, where the packing is complicated by the presence of fixed size circular prohibited areas. Here the objective is to…
In this study, we investigate three-dimensional chocolate bar games, which are variants of the game of Chomp. A three-dimensional chocolate bar is a three-dimensional array of cubes in which a bitter cubic box is present in some part of the…
Mathematics has been used in the exploration and enumeration of juggling patterns. In the case when we catch and throw one ball at a time the number of possible juggling patterns is well-known. When we are allowed to catch and throw any…
We study the combinatorial FIFO stack-up problem. In delivery industry, bins have to be stacked-up from conveyor belts onto pallets with respect to customer orders. Given k sequences q_1, ..., q_k of labeled bins and a positive integer p,…
We consider the classic problem of fairly dividing a heterogeneous good ("cake") among several agents with different valuations. Classic cake-cutting procedures either allocate each agent a collection of disconnected pieces, or assume that…
The Bernoulli sieve is a version of the classical `balls-in-boxes' occupancy scheme, in which random frequencies of infinitely many boxes are produced by a multiplicative renewal process, also known as the residual allocation model or…