Partitioning a rectangle into small perimeter rectangles (Q1197044)

The authors discuss the following question: How can one partition the unit square into \(n\) rectangles with edges parallel to the axes, so as to minimize the largest perimeter among the rectangles. They prove that the best construction for \(n=k^ 2+s\), with \(s=1\) or \(s=-1\), has \(k-1\) rows of \(k\) identical rectangles and one row of \(k+s\) identical rectangles, with all rectangles having the same perimeter. Also discussed is the analogous problem for partitioning a rectangle into \(n\) smaller rectangles.