Packing an equilateral polygon in a thin strip
Let \(P_n\) denote an equilateral polygon of \(n\) sides with each side having length 1. We allow the sides to cross and we allow vertex repetitions. The following question is considered. What is the smallest width \(t_n\) of a horizontal strip in Euclidean plane that contains a \(P_n\)? When is \(n\) even? It is easy to see that \(t_n= 0\). For a polygon with an odd number of sides, it is proved that \[ \begin{aligned} t_{2n+ 1} & = {\sqrt{2n+ 1}\over n+ 1}\qquad\text{for}\quad 2n+ 1\equiv 3\pmod 4,\\ t_{2n+ 1} & = \sqrt{{2n+ 1\over n^2+ 2n}}\quad\text{for}\quad 2n+ 1\equiv 1\pmod 4,\end{aligned} \] respectively. The result applies to unit distance graphs. In this class of graphs it is shown that if a graph \(G\) has no odd circuits of length greater than or equal to 15, then the chromatic number of \(G\) is at most 6.
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