De Bruijn's Theorem
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De Bruijn's Theorem
In a 1969 paper, Dutch mathematician Nicolaas Govert de Bruijn proved several results about packing congruent rectangular bricks (of any dimension) into larger rectangular boxes, in such a way that no space is left over. One of these results is now known as de Bruijn's theorem. According to this theorem, a "harmonic brick" (one in which each side length is a multiple of the next smaller side length) can only be packed into a box whose dimensions are multiples of the brick's dimensions.. Example De Bruijn was led to prove this result after his then-seven-year-old son, F. W. de Bruijn, was unable to pack bricks of dimension 1\cdot 2\cdot 4 into a 6\cdot 6\cdot 6 cube. The cube has a volume equal to that of 27 bricks, but only 26 bricks may be packed into it. One way to see this is to partition the cube into 27 smaller cubes of size 2\cdot 2\cdot 2 colored alternately black and white. This coloring has more unit cells of one color than of the other, but with this coloring any placemen ...
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Nicolaas Govert De Bruijn
Nicolaas Govert (Dick) de Bruijn (; 9 July 1918 – 17 February 2012) was a Dutch mathematician, noted for his many contributions in the fields of analysis, number theory, combinatorics and logic.Nicolaas Govert de Bruijn's obituary
2012


Biography

De Bruijn was born in where he attended elementary school between 1924 and 1930 and secondary school until 1934. He started studies in mathematics at in 1936 but his studies were interrupted by the outbreak of

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Congruence (geometry)
In geometry, two figures or objects are congruent if they have the same shape and size, or if one has the same shape and size as the mirror image of the other. More formally, two sets of points are called congruent if, and only if, one can be transformed into the other by an isometry, i.e., a combination of rigid motions, namely a translation, a rotation, and a reflection. This means that either object can be repositioned and reflected (but not resized) so as to coincide precisely with the other object. Therefore two distinct plane figures on a piece of paper are congruent if they can be cut out and then matched up completely. Turning the paper over is permitted. In elementary geometry the word ''congruent'' is often used as follows. The word ''equal'' is often used in place of ''congruent'' for these objects. *Two line segments are congruent if they have the same length. *Two angles are congruent if they have the same measure. *Two circles are congruent if they have the ...
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Cuboid
In geometry, a cuboid is a hexahedron, a six-faced solid. Its faces are quadrilaterals. Cuboid means "like a cube", in the sense that by adjusting the length of the edges or the angles between edges and faces a cuboid can be transformed into a cube. In mathematical language a cuboid is a convex polyhedron, whose polyhedral graph is the same as that of a cube. Special cases are a cube, with 6 squares as faces, a rectangular prism, rectangular cuboid or rectangular box, with 6 rectangles as faces, for both, cube and rectangular prism, adjacent faces meet in a right angle. General cuboids By Euler's formula the numbers of faces ''F'', of vertices ''V'', and of edges ''E'' of any convex polyhedron are related by the formula ''F'' + ''V'' = ''E'' + 2. In the case of a cuboid this gives 6 + 8  = 12 + 2; that is, like a cube, a cuboid has 6 faces, 8 vertices, and 12 edges. Along with the rectangular cuboids, any parallelepiped ...
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Integer
An integer is the number zero (), a positive natural number (, , , etc.) or a negative integer with a minus sign (−1, −2, −3, etc.). The negative numbers are the additive inverses of the corresponding positive numbers. In the language of mathematics, the set of integers is often denoted by the boldface or blackboard bold \mathbb. The set of natural numbers \mathbb is a subset of \mathbb, which in turn is a subset of the set of all rational numbers \mathbb, itself a subset of the real numbers \mathbb. Like the natural numbers, \mathbb is countably infinite. An integer may be regarded as a real number that can be written without a fractional component. For example, 21, 4, 0, and −2048 are integers, while 9.75, , and  are not. The integers form the smallest group and the smallest ring containing the natural numbers. In algebraic number theory, the integers are sometimes qualified as rational integers to distinguish them from the more general algebraic integers ...
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Permutation
In mathematics, a permutation of a set is, loosely speaking, an arrangement of its members into a sequence or linear order, or if the set is already ordered, a rearrangement of its elements. The word "permutation" also refers to the act or process of changing the linear order of an ordered set. Permutations differ from combinations, which are selections of some members of a set regardless of order. For example, written as tuples, there are six permutations of the set , namely (1, 2, 3), (1, 3, 2), (2, 1, 3), (2, 3, 1), (3, 1, 2), and (3, 2, 1). These are all the possible orderings of this three-element set. Anagrams of words whose letters are different are also permutations: the letters are already ordered in the original word, and the anagram is a reordering of the letters. The study of permutations of finite sets is an important topic in the fields of combinatorics and group theory. Permutations are used in almost every branch of mathematics, and in many other fields of scie ...
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Brick
A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured construction blocks. Bricks can be joined using mortar, adhesives or by interlocking them. Bricks are usually produced at brickworks in numerous classes, types, materials, and sizes which vary with region and time period, and are produced in bulk quantities. ''Block'' is a similar term referring to a rectangular building unit composed of similar materials, but is usually larger than a brick. Lightweight bricks (also called lightweight blocks) are made from expanded clay aggregate. Fired bricks are one of the longest-lasting and strongest building materials, sometimes referred to as artificial stone, and have been used since circa 4000 BC. Air-dried bricks, also known as mud-bricks, have a history older than fired bricks, and have an additi ...
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Polynomial
In mathematics, a polynomial is an expression consisting of indeterminates (also called variables) and coefficients, that involves only the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and positive-integer powers of variables. An example of a polynomial of a single indeterminate is . An example with three indeterminates is . Polynomials appear in many areas of mathematics and science. For example, they are used to form polynomial equations, which encode a wide range of problems, from elementary word problems to complicated scientific problems; they are used to define polynomial functions, which appear in settings ranging from basic chemistry and physics to economics and social science; they are used in calculus and numerical analysis to approximate other functions. In advanced mathematics, polynomials are used to construct polynomial rings and algebraic varieties, which are central concepts in algebra and algebraic geometry. Etymology The word ''polynomial'' join ...
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Discrete Mathematics (journal)
''Discrete Mathematics'' is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal in the broad area of discrete mathematics, combinatorics, graph theory, and their applications. It was established in 1971 and is published by North-Holland Publishing Company. It publishes both short notes, full length contributions, as well as survey articles. In addition, the journal publishes a number of special issues each year dedicated to a particular topic. Although originally it published articles in French and German, it now allows only English language articles. The editor-in-chief is Douglas West ( University of Illinois, Urbana). History The journal was established in 1971. The very first article it published was written by Paul Erdős, who went on to publish a total of 84 papers in the journal. Abstracting and indexing The journal is abstracted and indexed in: According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the journal has a 2020 impact factor of 0.87. Notable publications * The 1972 ...
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