Related papers: On Dissecting Polygons into Rectangles

We study the problem of rotating a simple polygon to contain the maximum number of elements from a given point set in the plane. We consider variations of this problem where the rotation center is a given point or lies on a line segment, a…

Let $ES(n)$ be the smallest integer such that any set of $ES(n)$ points in the plane in general position contains $n$ points in convex position. In their seminal 1935 paper, Erdos and Szekeres showed that $ES(n) \leq {2n - 4\choose n-2} + 1…

The minimum number of elements needed for a poset to have exactly n linear extensions is at most 2sqrt{n}. In a special case, the bound can be improved to sqrt{n}.

We consider the combinatorial question of how many convex polygons can be made by using the edges taken from a fixed triangulation of n vertices. For general triangulations, there can be exponentially many: we show a construction that has…

Let $s$ be a finite sequence over a field of length $n$. It is well-known that if $s$ satisfies a linear recurrence of order $d$ with non-zero constant term, then the reverse of $s$ also satisfies a recurrence of order $d$ (with…

We consider the problem of drawing an outerplanar graph with $n$ vertices with at most one bend per edge if the outer face is already drawn as a simple polygon. We prove that it can be decided in $O(nm)$ time if such a drawing exists, where…

It is known that $\sum\limits_{i=1}^{\infty} \frac{1}{i (i+1)} = 1$. In 1968, Meir and Moser asked for finding the smallest $\epsilon$ such that all the rectangles of sizes $1/i \times 1/(i + 1)$ for $i = 1, 2, \ldots$, can be packed into a…

Motivated by questions in number theory, Myerson asked how small the sum of 5 complex nth roots of unity can be. We obtain a uniform bound of O(n^{-4/3}) by perturbing the vertices of a regular pentagon, improving to O(n^{-7/3}) infinitely…

In the March 2025 issue of Pour la Science, Jean-Paul Delahaye described a wonderful solution to the following problem: How many ways can you divide a 3 by 2n rectangle into two connected, congruent pieces? We show that this problem can be…

Given two finite posets $\mathcal P$ and $\mathcal Q$, their Ramsey number, denoted by $R(\mathcal P,\mathcal Q)$, is defined to be the smallest integer $N$ such that any blue/red colouring of the vertices of the hypercube $Q_N$ has either…

For positive integers $n\ge s> r$, the Tur\'an function $T(n,s,r)$ is the smallest size of an r-graph with n vertices such that every set of s vertices contains at least one edge. Also, define the Tur\'an density $t(s,r)$ as the limit of…

We show that the maximum number of convex polygons in a triangulation of $n$ points in the plane is $O(1.5029^n)$. This improves an earlier bound of $O(1.6181^n)$ established by van Kreveld, L\"offler, and Pach (2012) and almost matches the…

According to a result of Arkin~\etal~(2016), given $n$ point pairs in the plane, there exists a simple polygonal cycle that separates the two points in each pair to different sides; moreover, a $O(\sqrt{n})$-factor approximation with…

We consider the width $X_T(\omega)$ of a convex $n$-gon $T$ in the plane along the random direction $\omega\in\mathbb{R}/2\pi \mathbb{Z}$ and study its deviation rate: $$…

We study the structure of the algebra of polynomial invariants for the usual conjugation action of the complex special, SO_n, and general, O_n, orthogonal group on the space of traceless n by n complex matrices. (Note that these two…

We give a formula for the number of interior intersection points made by the diagonals of a regular $n$-gon. The answer is a polynomial on each residue class modulo 2520. We also compute the number of regions formed by the diagonals, by…

Let a polygon be composed of equal rectangles. We find all quadratic irrationals r for which the polygon can be tiled by similar rectangles with given side ratio r.

The tangram and Sei Shonagon Chie no Ita are popular dissection puzzles consisting of seven pieces. Each puzzle can be formed by identifying edges from sixteen identical right isosceles triangles. It is known that the tangram can form 13…

This article gives a short proof that all ideal polygons admit a short orthogeodesic decomposition. Specifically, all $n$-gons admit an orthogeodesic decomposition with orthogeodesics all of length at most $\sim 2 \log(n)$, and this is…

Let $Q_n$ be the poset that consists of all subsets of a fixed $n$-element set, ordered by set inclusion. The poset cube Ramsey number $R(Q_n,Q_n)$ is defined as the least $m$ such that any 2-coloring of the elements of $Q_m$ admits a…