Minimum perimeter rectangles that enclose congruent non-overlapping circles (Q1025447)

Dense packings of congruent circles have been extensively studied along the years for various geometric shapes including squares, circles, and equilateral triangles. For rectangles -- the focus of the current paper -- the present authors have earlier considered minimizing the area for a fixed number \(n\) of congruent circles [Algorithms Comb. 25, 633--650 (2003; Zbl 1077.52511)]. Here, however, the rectangle perimeter is minimized instead. The optimal packings for these two versions of the problem may indeed differ. The authors use computer simulations to try to find as good packings as possible for up to 5000 circles. Properties of the best packings found are studied in great detail. It is among other things proved that the height-to-width ratio of rectangles with minimum perimeter tends to 1 as the number of congruent circles tends to infinity.