MnGCA

ghost640 · Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2009 7:02 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the puzzle FirstBass! Had fun learning about various packing routines today, got all sorts of ideas for new puzzle caches...

Pear Head · Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2009 7:16 pm Post subject:

Pear Head · Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2009 7:42 pm Post subject:

A couple of you have asked how I got the answer.

You'll need to read up on circle packing. It's a lot of theory, most of which I don't understand, although I did grasp the principals.

Here's the quick spreadsheet which gave the answer (disclaimer: this isn't my spreadsheet):

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pJr23uEIsD7A3dj7XykHiVQ
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Hmm...

Bunganator · Geocacher Joined: 09 Apr 2008 Posts: 277

I got a little reassurance from one of my own math professors. After one initial guess that was off, I realized I didnt pack the circles tight enough. I actually made a grid of hundreds of circles in MS Word, and then put a giant circle around them, and counted them individually... Now 1B told me to find the formula for any large circle of radius n...

X51hz · Geocacher Joined: 04 Dec 2007 Posts: 218

good god.....WHAT HAVE I STARTED.....I just wanted to know if a macro excisted and wow..........this is kind of facinating though. Smile

Also 1B, I have done enough math to last me for about a week, it made me use the math cells of my brain and now they hurt.

ghost640 · Posted: Sat Apr 04, 2009 6:44 am Post subject:

Yea, I only woke up the square-packing brain cells, so I got the right answer to the wrong question. But if anyone ever needs squares packed into circles, I'm your man...

jrest · Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2009 7:29 am Post subject:

Hah - now we know, you really can get a square peg in a round hole... Wink

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round n' round we go!