A heptomino of order 76 (Q751664)

[This review covers also the author's paper ibid. 51, 125-126 (1986; see above).] Consider a 2 by 5 array of unit cells with the cells in the first row labelled 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 from left to right, and the cells in the bottom row labelled 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 from left to right. Cells labelled 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 form the Y-hexomino, and cells labelled 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8 form the P-heptomino. In general, a polyomino X is said to tile a rectangular array of cells if the cells of the rectangle can be partitioned into congruent copies of X. As long ago as 1966, S. W. Golomb asked if either the Y-hexomino, or the P-heptomino could tile a rectangle. Using a computer, the author has shown that both can, and he found a tiling of the smallest possible rectangle in both cases. The smallest rectangle tilable by the Y-hexomino is 23 by 24, and the smallest rectangle tilable by the P-heptomino is 19 by 28. The note about the P-heptomino gives a tiling of a 21 by 26 rectangle instead of the smaller 19 by 28 rectangle. The author achievement is heightened by the fact that he is blind.