Maximum overhang

DOI10.4169/000298909X474855MaRDI QIDQ3107108zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors Yuval Peres, Mikkel Thorup, Peter Winkler, Uri Zwick, Mike Paterson

Publication date 1 January 2012

Published in American Mathematical Monthly (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/0707.0093

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Recreational mathematics (00A08) Lattices and convex bodies in (2) dimensions (aspects of discrete geometry) (52C05) Combinatorics in computer science (68R05) Combinatorial optimization (90C27) Discrete mathematics (educational aspects) (97N70)

Abstract: How far can a stack of $n$ identical blocks be made to hang over the edge of a table? The question dates back to at least the middle of the 19th century and the answer to it was widely believed to be of order $logn$. Recently, Paterson and Zwick constructed $n$-block stacks with overhangs of order $n^{1/3}$, exponentially better than previously thought possible. We show here that order $n^{1/3}$ is indeed best possible, resolving the long-standing overhang problem up to a constant factor.

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