Related papers: A Note on a Picture-Hanging Puzzle
The problem that we consider is the following: given an $n \times n$ array $A$ of positive numbers, find a tiling using at most $p$ rectangles (which means that each array element must be covered by some rectangle and no two rectangles must…
A rollercoaster is a sequence of real numbers for which every maximal contiguous subsequence, that is increasing or decreasing, has length at least three. By translating this sequence to a set of points in the plane, a rollercoaster can be…
We study what happens when coherence fails. Categories with a tensor product and a natural associativity isomorphism that does not necessarily satisfy the pentagon coherence requirements (called associative categories) are considered.…
We provide a new upper bound for the length for the shortest non-trivial element in the lower central series $\gamma_n(\mathbb{F}_2)$ of the free group on two generators. We prove that it has an asymptotic behaviour of the form…
A necklace can be considered as a cyclic list of $n$ red and $n$ blue beads in an arbitrary order, and the goal is to fold it into two and find a large cross-free matching of pairs of beads of different colors. We give a counterexample for…
String matching is the problem of deciding whether a given $n$-bit string contains a given $k$-bit pattern. We study the complexity of this problem in three settings. Communication complexity. For small $k$, we provide near-optimal upper…
Binary jumbled pattern matching asks to preprocess a binary string $S$ in order to answer queries $(i,j)$ which ask for a substring of $S$ that is of length $i$ and has exactly $j$ 1-bits. This problem naturally generalizes to…
Let G be a finite solvable group, and let h(G) denote its Fitting height, namely the length of a shortest normal series in G with nilpotent factors. We show, that any law in G has length at least h(G). This result is then used to improve a…
A circulant graph H is defined on the set of vertices V=\left\{ 1,\ldots,n\right\} and edges E=\left\{ \left(i,j\right):\left|i-j\right|\equiv s\left(\textrm{mod}n\right),s\in S\right\} , where S\subseteq\left\{…
For any odd integer $n\geq3$ a board (of size $n$) is a square array of $n\times n$ positions with a simple rule of how to move between positions. The goal of the game we introduce is to find a path from the upper left corner of a board to…
We show that any proper coloring of a Kneser graph $KG_{n,k}$ with $n-2k+2$ colors contains a trivial color (i.e., a color consisting of sets that all contain a fixed element), provided $n>(2+\varepsilon)k^2$, where $\varepsilon\to 0$ as…
Inspired by artistic practices such as beadwork and himmeli, we study the problem of threading a single string through a set of tubes, so that pulling the string forms a desired graph. More precisely, given a connected graph (where edges…
The 4-simplex has vertices 5 unit quaternions, which we arrange so that one of them is the unit. We show that the remaining 4 vertices are the generators of a free group. For the proof, we introduce a new alternating length on words in free…
The 15-Puzzle is a well studied permutation puzzle. This paper explores the group structure of a three-dimensional variant of the 15-Puzzle known as the Varikon Box, with the goal of providing a heuristic that would help a human solve it…
A generalized `$15$ puzzle' consists of an $n \times n$ numbered grid, with one missing number. A move in the game switches the position of the empty square with the position of one of its neighbors. We solve Diaconis' `15 puzzle problem'…
We introduce a computational origami problem which we call the segment folding problem: given a set of $n$ line-segments in the plane the aim is to make creases along all segments in the minimum number of folding steps. Note that a folding…
Consider the plane as a checkerboard, with each unit square colored black or white in an arbitrary manner. We show that for any such coloring there are straight line segments, of arbitrarily large length, such that the difference of their…
We study a family of sorting match puzzles on grids, which we call permutation match puzzles. In this puzzle, each row and column of a $n \times n$ grid is labeled with an ordering constraint -- ascending (A) or descending (D) -- and the…
The 15 puzzle is a classic reconfiguration puzzle with fifteen uniquely labeled unit squares within a $4 \times 4$ board in which the goal is to slide the squares (without ever overlapping) into a target configuration. By generalizing the…
String art is an arrangement of pegs on a board with thread strung between these pegs to form beautiful geometric patterns. In this article, we consider a simple form of string art where pegs are placed on two diverging axes, and segments…