OpenEuphoria

Re: Programming Contest: Circle Packing

• Posted by Al Getz <Xaxo at aol.com> Nov 02, 2005
• 450 views

Juergen Luethje wrote:
> 
> Al Getz wrote:
> 
> > Juergen Luethje wrote:
> >>
> >> cklester wrote:
> >>
> >>> Juergen Luethje wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> I stumbled across a programming contest, maybe someone is interested
> >>>> in it.
> >>>
> >>> That looks fun! I'm too busy, though. :(
> >>>
> >>> I hope a Euphorian takes up the challenge and lets us know how it goes! :)
> >>
> >> I would like to do it myself, but I'm afraid that's above me. 
> >> So I'm also curious about solutions of other Euphorians.
> >>
> >
> > Hi there,
> >
> > I did a circle packing program quite a while back, where all the
> > circles are the same diameter, and had to fit inside a much larger
> > circle.  It was used to test winding toroid core inductors, to see
> > if the theoretical number of turns for a given design would really
> > fit on a particular magnetic core using a given required wire gauge.
> >
> > I even went as far as to create a bitmap picture of all the circles
> > inside the larger one just to be able to get a view of the cross
> > section before it's actually wound, which turned out to be rather
> > cool once you get up into the thousands of circles inside the larger
> > one.  The smaller circles begin to take on spiral-like patterns.
> > Actually though even for a small number of circles it's interesting to
> > see the cross section so you can see how much space is left in the
> > toroid window.  It becomes very apparent why even one more wire turn wont
> > fit sometimes because the whole window is truely almost fully packed.
> 
> Interesting!
> 
> > I've read that a good solution to this problem is obtained by allowing
> > the smaller circles to 'vibrate' inside the larger one until they reach
> > optimum packing.  I dont think this will work for the current Contest
> > however
> 
> Letting the smaller circles 'vibrate' was actually my first idea for the
> contest!  I just don't know how to write a program that does do so.
> 
> > because the circles are all of different diameters, which requires
> > a different strategy than vibrating or the one i used or perhaps some clever
> > geometry.
> 
> Are you sure that 'vibrating' will not lead to good results, just
> because the circles are all of different diameters? Maybe the small
> circles would roll into the space between the bigger ones?
> 
> Regards,
>    Juergen
> 
> -- 
> Have you read a good program lately?
> 
> 

Hi there Juergen,


Actually when i said that i was thinking the vibration would move
all the circles the same way, and since some are larger, the larger
ones would move less than the smaller ones relative to their diameter.
Maybe this would work anyway...i havent given a great deal of thought
to it :(


Take care,
Al

And, good luck with your Euphoria programming!

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