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The problem of packing a set of items into a number of bins such that the total weight, volume, etc. does not exceed some maximum value. A simple algorithm (the first-fit ...

Find the shape of a soap film (i.e., minimal surface) which will fill two inverted conical funnels facing each other is known as Sinclair's soap film problem (Bliss 1925, p. ...

Let X be an arbitrary topological space. Denote the set closure of a subset A of X by A^- and the complement of A by A^'. Then at most 14 different sets can be derived from A ...

Sylvester's four-point problem asks for the probability q(R) that four points chosen at random in a planar region R have a convex hull which is a quadrilateral (Sylvester ...

The Buffon-Laplace needle problem asks to find the probability P(l,a,b) that a needle of length l will land on at least one line, given a floor with a grid of equally spaced ...

An unsolved problem in mathematics attributed to Lehmer (1933) that concerns the minimum Mahler measure M_1(P) for a univariate polynomial P(x) that is not a product of ...

The minimum spanning tree of a weighted graph is a set of edges of minimum total weight which form a spanning tree of the graph. When a graph is unweighted, any spanning tree ...

Hadamard's maximum determinant problem asks to find the largest possible determinant (in absolute value) for any n×n matrix whose elements are taken from some set. Hadamard ...

The ant colony algorithm is an algorithm for finding optimal paths that is based on the behavior of ants searching for food. At first, the ants wander randomly. When an ant ...

Zeno's paradoxes are a set of four paradoxes dealing with counterintuitive aspects of continuous space and time. 1. Dichotomy paradox: Before an object can travel a given ...