Related papers: Compactness Theorems for Geometric Packings
It is known that $\sum\limits_{i =1}^\infty {1/ i^2}={\pi^2/6}$. Meir and Moser asked what is the smallest $\epsilon$ such that all the squares of sides of length $1$, $1/2$, $1/3$, $\ldots$ can be packed into a rectangle of area…
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…
A well known open problem of Meir and Moser asks if the squares of sidelength $1/n$ for $n \geq 2$ can be packed perfectly into a square of area $\sum_{n=2}^\infty \frac{1}{n^2} = \frac{\pi^2}{6}-1$. In this paper we show that for any $1/2…
Let $S$ be a set of $n$ points in the unit square $[0,1]^2$, one of which is the origin. We construct $n$ pairwise interior-disjoint axis-aligned empty rectangles such that the lower left corner of each rectangle is a point in $S$, and the…
We show that deciding whether a given set of circles can be packed into a rectangle, an equilateral triangle, or a unit square are NP-hard problems, settling the complexity of these natural packing problems. On the positive side, we show…
By rectangle packing we mean putting a set of rectangles into an enclosing rectangle, without any overlapping. We begin with perfect rectangle packing problems, then prove two continuity properties for parallel rectangle packing problems,…
We study the packing of a large number of congruent and non--overlapping circles inside a regular polygon. We have devised efficient algorithms that allow one to generate configurations of $N$ densely packed circles inside a regular polygon…
The well-known problem stated by A. Meir and L. Moser consists in tiling the unit square with rectangles (details), whose side lengths equal $1/n\times 1/(n+1)$, where indices~$n$ range from 1 to infinity. Recently, Terence Tao has proved…
We consider the problem of finding all enclosing rectangles of minimum area that can contain a given set of rectangles without overlap. Our rectangle packer chooses the x-coordinates of all the rectangles before any of the y-coordinates. We…
Paul Erd\H{o}s and R. Daniel Mauldin asked a series of questions on certain types of polygons of area $1$, the vertices of which can be found in every planar set of infinite Lebesgue measure. We address two of these questions, one on cyclic…
Let $P_{n}$ be a set of $n$ points, including the origin, in the unit square $U = [0,1]^2$. We consider the problem of constructing $n$ axis-parallel and mutually disjoint rectangles inside $U$ such that the bottom-left corner of each…
We show that packing axis-aligned unit squares into a simple polygon $P$ is NP-hard, even when $P$ is an orthogonal and orthogonally convex polygon with half-integer coordinates. It has been known since the early 80s that packing unit…
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.…
Consider a set P of points in the unit square U, one of them being the origin. For each point p in P you may draw a rectangle in U with its lower-left corner in p. What is the maximum area such rectangles can cover without overlapping each…
We provide a tight result for a fundamental problem arising from packing squares into a circular container: The critical density of packing squares into a disk is $\delta=\frac{8}{5\pi}\approx 0.509$. This implies that any set of (not…
Suppose that $I$ is a unit square. Let $T$ (resp. $\Delta$) be an isosceles right triangle (resp. an equilateral triangle). We prove that any collection of triangles homothetic to $T$ (resp. $\Delta$), whose total area does not exceed…
This note concerns the so-called pyjama problem, whether it is possible to cover the plane by finitely many rotations of vertical strips of half-width $\varepsilon$. We first prove that there exist no periodic coverings for…
We study the complexity of symmetric assembly puzzles: given a collection of simple polygons, can we translate, rotate, and possibly flip them so that their interior-disjoint union is line symmetric? On the negative side, we show that the…
For any delta > 1 we construct a periodic and locally finite packing of the plane with ellipses whose delta-enlargement covers the whole plane. This answers a question of Imre B\'ar\'any. On the other hand, we show that if C is a packing in…
For points $p_1,\ldots , p_n$ in the unit square $[0,1]^2$, an \emph{anchored rectangle packing} consists of interior-disjoint axis-aligned empty rectangles $r_1,\ldots , r_n\subseteq [0,1]^2$ such that point $p_i$ is a corner of the…