Square Packing with Asymptotically Smallest Waste Only Needs Good Squares

Abstract

We consider the problem of packing a large square with nonoverlapping unit squares. Let $W(x)$ be the minimum wasted area when a large square of side length $x$ is packed with unit squares. In Roth and Vaughan's paper that proves the lower bound $W(x) \notin o(x^{1/2})$, a good square is defined to be a square with inclination at most $10^{-10}$ with respect to the large square. In this article, we prove that in calculating the asymptotic growth of the wasted space, it suffices to only consider packings with only good squares. This allows the lower bound proof in Roth and Vaughan's paper to be simplified by not having to handle bad squares.

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