Packing problem

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Packing problems are a class of optimization problems in recreational mathematics which involve attempting to pack objects together (often inside a container), as densely as possible. Many of these problems can be related to real life storage and transportation issues. Each packing problem has a dual covering problem, which asks how many of the same objects are required to completely cover every region of the container, where objects are allowed to overlap.

In a packing problem, you are given:

'containers' (usually a single two- or three-dimensional convex region, or an infinite space)
'goods' (usually a single type of shape), some or all of which must be packed into this container

Usually the packing must be without overlaps between goods and other goods or the container walls. The aim is to find the configuration with the maximal density. In some variants the overlapping (of goods with each other and/or with the boundary of the container) is allowed but should be minimised.

Covering problems	Packing problems
Covering-packing dualities
Minimum set cover	Maximum set packing
Minimum vertex cover	Maximum matching
Minimum edge cover	Maximum independent set

Packing infinite space

Many of these problems, when the container size is increased in all directions, become equivalent to the problem of packing objects as densely as possible in infinite Euclidean space. This problem is relevant to a number of scientific disciplines, and has received significant attention. The Kepler conjecture postulated an optimal solution for packing spheres hundreds of years before it was proven correct by Thomas Callister Hales. Many other shapes have received attention, including ellipsoids, tetrahedra, icosahedra, and unequal-sphere dimers.

Hexagonal packing of circles

The hexagonal packing of circles on a 2-dimensional Euclidean plane.

These problems are mathematically distinct from the ideas in the circle packing theorem. The related circle packing problem deals with packing circles, possibly of different sizes, on a surface, for instance the plane or a sphere.

Circles (and their counterparts in other dimensions) can never be packed with 100% efficiency in dimensions larger than one (in a one dimensional universe, circles merely consist of two points). That is, there will always be unused space if you are only packing circles. The most efficient way of packing circles, hexagonal packing produces approximately 90% efficiency. [1]

Sphere packings in higher dimensions

Main article: Sphere packing

In three dimensions, the face-centered cubic lattice offers the best lattice packing of spheres, and is believed to be the optimal of all packings. The 8-dimensional E8 lattice and 24-dimensional Leech lattice are also believed to be optimal.

Packings of Platonic solids in three dimensions

Cubes can easily be arranged to fill three-dimensional space completely, the most natural packing being the cubic honeycomb. No other Platonic solid can tile space on its own, but some preliminary results are known. Tetrahedra can achieve a packing of at least 85%. One of the best packings of regular dodecahedra is based on the aforementioned face-centered cubic (FCC) lattice.

Tetrahedra and octahedra together can fill all of space in an arrangement known as the tetrahedral-octahedral honeycomb.

Packing in 3-dimensional containers

Spheres into a Euclidean ball

The problem of finding the smallest ball such that $k$ disjoint open unit balls may be packed inside it has a simple and complete answer in $n$ -dimensional Euclidean space if $\scriptstyle k\leq n+1$ , and in an infinite dimensional Hilbert space with no restrictions. It is worth describing in detail here, to give a flavor of the general problem. In this case, a configuration of $k$ pairwise tangent unit balls is available. Place the centers at the vertices $a 1,.., a k$ of a regular $\scriptstyle(k-1)$ dimensional simplex with edge 2; this is easily realized starting from an orthonormal basis. A small computation shows that the distance of each vertex from the barycenter is $\scriptstyle\sqrt{2\big(1-\frac{1}{k} \big)}$ . Moreover, any other point of the space necessarily has a larger distance from at least one of the $\scriptstyle k$ vertices. In terms of inclusions of balls, the $\scriptstyle k$ open unit balls centered at $\scriptstyle a_1,..,a_k$ are included in a ball of radius $\scriptstyle r_k:=1+\sqrt{2\big(1-\frac{1}{k}\big)}$ , which is minimal for this configuration.

To show that this configuration is optimal, let $\scriptstyle x_1,...,x_k$ be the centers of $\scriptstyle k$ disjoint open unit balls contained in a ball of radius $\scriptstyle r$ centered at a point $\scriptstyle x_0$ . Consider the map from the finite set $\scriptstyle\{x_1,..x_k\}$ into $\scriptstyle\{a_1,..a_k\}$ taking $\scriptstyle x_j$ in the corresponding $\scriptstyle a_j$ for each $\scriptstyle 1\leq j\leq k$ . Since for all $\scriptstyle 1\leq i<j\leq k$ , $\scriptstyle \|a_i-a_j\|=2\leq\|x_i-x_j\|$ this map is 1-Lipschitz and by the Kirszbraun theorem it extends to a 1-Lipschitz map that is globally defined; in particular, there exists a point $\scriptstyle a_0$ such that for all $\scriptstyle1\leq j\leq k$ one has $\scriptstyle\|a_0-a_j\|\leq\|x_0-x_j\|$ , so that also $\scriptstyle r_k\leq1+\|a_0-a_j\|\leq 1+\|x_0-x_j\|\leq r$ . This shows that there are $\scriptstyle k$ disjoint unit open balls in a ball of radius $\scriptstyle r$ if and only if $\scriptstyle r\geq r_k$ . Notice that in an infinite dimensional Hilbert space this implies that there are infinitely many disjoint open unit balls inside a ball of radius $\scriptstyle r$ if and only if $\scriptstyle r\geq 1+\sqrt{2}$ . For instance, the unit balls centered at $\scriptstyle\sqrt{2}e_j$ , where $\scriptstyle\{e_j\}_j$ is an orthonormal basis, are disjoint and included in a ball of radius $\scriptstyle 1+\sqrt{2}$ centered at the origin. Moreover, for $\scriptstyle r<1+\sqrt{2}$ , the maximum number of disjoint open unit balls inside a ball of radius r is $\scriptstyle\big\lfloor \frac{2}{2-(r-1)^2}\big\rfloor$ .

Spheres in a cuboid

Determine the number of spherical objects of given diameter d can be packed into a cuboid of size a × b × c.

Packing in 2-dimensional containers

Packing circles

Circles in circle

Some of the more non-trivial circle packing problems are packing unit circles into the smallest possible larger circle.

Minimum solutions:^{[citation needed]}

Number of circles	Circle radius
1	1
2	2
3	2.154...
4	2.414...
5	2.701...
6	3
7	3
8	3.304...
9	3.613...
10	3.813...
11	3.923...
12	4.029...
13	4.236...
14	4.328...
15	4.521...
16	4.615...
17	4.792...
18	4.863...
19	4.863...
20	5.122...

Circles in square

The optimal packing of 15 circles in a square.

Main article: Circle packing in a square

Pack n unit circles into the smallest possible square. This is closely related to spreading points in a unit square with the objective of finding the greatest minimal separation, d_n, between points^[1]. To convert between these two formulations of the problem, the square side for unit circles will be L=2+2/d_n.

Optimal solutions have been proven for n≤30.^[2]

Circles in isosceles right triangle

Pack n unit circles into the smallest possible isosceles right triangle (lengths shown are length of leg)

Minimum solutions:^{[citation needed]}

Number of circles	Length
1	3.414...
2	4.828...
3	5.414...
4	6.242...
5	7.146...
6	7.414...
7	8.181...
8	8.692...
9	9.071...
10	9.414...
11	10.059...
12	10.422...
13	10.798...
14	11.141...
15	11.414...

Circles in equilateral triangle

Pack n unit circles into the smallest possible equilateral triangle (lengths shown are side length).

Minimum solutions:^{[citation needed]}

Number of circles	Length
1	3.464...
2	5.464...
3	5.464...
4	6.928...
5	7.464...
6	7.464...
7	8.928...
8	9.293...
9	9.464...
10	9.464...
11	10.730...
12	10.928...
13	11.406...
14	11.464...
15	11.464...

Circles in regular hexagon

Pack n unit circles into the smallest possible regular hexagon (lengths shown are side length).

Minimum solutions:^{[citation needed]}

Number of circles	Length
1	1.154...
2	2.154...
3	2.309...
4	2.666...
5	2.999...
6	3.154...
7	3.154...
8	3.709...
9	4.011...
10	4.119...
11	4.309...
12	4.309...
13	4.618...
14	4.666...
15	4.961...

Packing squares

Squares in square

A problem is the square packing problem, where one must determine how many squares of side 1 you can pack into a square of side a. Obviously, if a is an integer, the answer is a², but the precise, or even asymptotic, amount of wasted space for a a non-integer is open.

Proven minimum solutions:^[3]

Number of squares	Square size
1	1
2	2
3	2
4	2
5	2.707 (2 + 2^−1/2)
6	3
7	3
8	3
9	3
10	3.707 (3 + 2^−1/2)

Other results:

If you can pack n² − 2 squares in a square of side a, then a ≥ n.^[4]
The naive approach (side matches side) leaves wasted space of less than 2a + 1.^[3]
The wasted space is asymptotically o(a^7/11).^[5]
The wasted space is not asymptotically o(a^1/2).^[6]
11 unit squares cannot be packed in a square of side less than $2+2\sqrt{4/5}$ .^[7]

Squares in circle

Pack n squares in the smallest possible circle.

Minimum solutions:^{[citation needed]}

Number of squares	Circle radius
1	0.707...
2	1.118...
3	1.288...
4	1.414...
5	1.581...
6	1.688...
7	1.802...
8	1.978...
9	2.077...
10	2.121...
11	2.215...
12	2.236...

Packing rectangles

Identical rectangles in a rectangle

The problem of packing multiple instances of a single rectangle of size (l,w), allowing for 90^o rotation, in a bigger rectangle of size (L,W) has some applications such as loading of boxes on pallets and, specifically, woodpulp stowage.

For example, it is possible to pack 147 rectangles of size (137,95) in a rectangle of size (1600,1230)^[8].

Related fields

In tiling or tesselation problems, there are to be no gaps, nor overlaps. Many of the puzzles of this type involve packing rectangles or polyominoes into a larger rectangle or other square-like shape.

There are significant theorems on tiling rectangles (and cuboids) in rectangles (cuboids) with no gaps or overlaps:

Klarner's theorem: An a × b rectangle can be packed with 1 × n strips iff n | a or n | b.^[9]

de Bruijn's theorem: A box can be packed with a harmonic brick a × a b × a b c if the box has dimensions a p × a b q × a b c r for some natural numbers p, q, r (i.e., the box is a multiple of the brick.)

The study of polyomino tilings largely concerns two classes of problems: to tile a rectangle with congruent tiles, and to pack one of each n-omino into a rectangle.

A classic puzzle of the second kind is to arrange all twelve pentominoes into rectangles sized 3×20, 4×15, 5×12 or 6×10.

Notes

^ Croft, Hallard T.; Falconer, Kenneth J.; Guy, Richard K. (1991). Unsolved Problems in Geometry. New York: Springer-Verlag. pp. 108–110. ISBN 0-387-97506-3.
^ Eckard Specht (20 May 2010). "The best known packings of equal circles in a square". http://hydra.nat.uni-magdeburg.de/packing/csq/csq.html. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
^ ^a ^b Erich Friedman, "Packing unit squares in squares: a survey and new results", The Electronic Journal of Combinatorics DS7 (2005).
^ M. Kearney and P. Shiu, "Efficient packing of unit squares in a square", The Electronic Journal of Combinatorics 9:1 #R14 (2002).
^ P. Erdős and R. L. Graham, "On packing squares with equal squares", Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series A 19 (1975), pp. 119–123.
^ K. F. Roth and R. C. Vaughan, "Inefficiency in packing squares with unit squares", Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series A 24 (1978), pp. 170-186.
^ W. Stromquist, "Packing 10 or 11 unit squares in a square", The Electronic Journal of Combinatorics 10 #R8 (2003).
^ E G Birgin, R D Lobato, R Morabito, "An effective recursive partitioning approach for the packing of identical rectangles in a rectangle", Journal of the Operational Research Society, 2010, 61, pp. 306-320.
^ Wagon, Stan (August-September 1987). "Fourteen Proofs of a Result About Tiling a Rectangle". The American Mathematical Monthly 94 (7): 601–617. http://mathdl.maa.org/images/upload_library/22/Ford/Wagon601-617.pdf. Retrieved 6 Jan 2010.

References

Weisstein, Eric W., "Klarner's Theorem" from MathWorld.
Weisstein, Eric W., "de Bruijn's Theorem" from MathWorld.

External links

Many puzzle books as well as mathematical journals contain articles on packing problems.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packing_problem"

Packing problem

Contents

Packing infinite space

Hexagonal packing of circles

Sphere packings in higher dimensions

Packings of Platonic solids in three dimensions

Packing in 3-dimensional containers

Spheres into a Euclidean ball

Spheres in a cuboid

Packing in 2-dimensional containers

Packing circles

Circles in circle

Circles in square

Circles in isosceles right triangle

Circles in equilateral triangle

Circles in regular hexagon

Packing squares

Squares in square

Squares in circle

Packing rectangles

Identical rectangles in a rectangle

Related fields

See also

Notes

References

External links