Have you ever noticed that real-life situations rarely conform to maths learned at school and university? So here I am, Christmas morning, and instructed to do something useful. So I get the task of rolling lengths of bacon round dates, each one forming a cylinder length 4 cm and diameter 2.5 cms. I am told to put them all into a baking dish which is elliptical, a=10cm, b=6cm (half-major axes) and get as many as possible in, on their sides. So the mathematical task is to fit rectangles 4 x 2.5 into that ellipse, and get the maximum number in. There of course is the inevitable "discussion" that a different way of arranging them would fit more in, but I claim there is no analytical way of doing it. Any idea what the maximum number is?

Sounds like it might be an NP complete problem. Tell people they may have to wait an exponential amount of time.

Since it is a real life situation and not an exact maths, you can first find the area of the elliptical plate, approximate it to the immediate lower number and divide it by the area of each rectangle.

A roll on the hand is worth two in the elliptical plate -as does a date in time.

 

Bacon in Spain? Needs must I suppose

Edited December 25, 20168 yr by geordief

If you got 18 I would be impressed - if you got 19 in you were cheating and squeezing them in.

 

I very much doubt it is NP complete; it does not smell as if it would reduce to the other NP-C problems. And even if it were it would not necessarily be solvable in exponential time (if all NP-C needed exponential time then P would definintely not equal NP and I would claim my million pounds).

 

I reckon 13 or 14 ish... Whilst the rest of the family dozes off the vast amount of food I prepared earlier we are a pigs in blankets rather than devils on horseback sort of family - I might do a bit of modeling to see if I can get past a dozen

Bacon and dates? Is this a thing?

Bacon and dates? Is this a thing?

 

 

That occurred to me, but I thought it would be off-topic to ask...

 

That occurred to me, but I thought it would be off-topic to ask...

Dr Krettin is clearly jarred . It must have been Baked Date Rolls

 

http://eggless-desserts.qualitylivingstyles.com/dateroll.html

Edited December 26, 20168 yr by geordief

Bacon and dates? Is this a thing?

 

I stress that I was only following orders, and if there is one thing I've learned in life, that is that you don't question the cook on Christmas Day morning, especially when she's holding a rather large knife. In fact, these things come roasted together with the turkey, and are delicious, adding flavour to the turkey meat which can be a bit bland.

 

Anyway, I fitted 15 into the bowl, which led to disapproval because it meant that it was impossible to divide them equally. But I survived.

 

(Edit: Well, I could have shot one guest or invited another, giving us 5 or 3 each, but that seems a little drastic.)

we are a pigs in blankets rather than devils on horseback sort of family - I might do a bit of modeling to see if I can get past a dozen

 

You are quite right, I've just been informed that they are devils on horseback. There is just one left out of the 15 - that's all I'll need today.

Edited December 26, 20168 yr by DrKrettin

Bacon and dates? Is this a thing?

 

Hey, bacon wrapped around anything is a 'thing'!

Bacon wrapped round nothing is still a thing.

 

How does one mathematically model the squashyness of bacon wrapped dates.

How does one mathematically model the squashyness of bacon wrapped dates.

 

There must be a special branch of maths - Squashiness Theory. Although I managed to fit 15 into the bowl, some kind of squashiness was involved, but no brute force.