17 Squares

prusaprinters

<p>This is a tool to provide a physical example of packing 17 1x1 unit squares into a 4.7x4.7 unit square. It was inspired by this twitter exchange, which I came across on imgur:</p><figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://media.printables.com/media/prints/256921/rich_content/9d663278-3ac0-439b-aa80-0d83d6f7d1f3/img-20220806-wa0008.jpg#%7B%22uuid%22%3A%22d4cd0f25-05ea-4215-8d08-35d7123f26b7%22%2C%22w%22%3A773%2C%22h%22%3A1280%7D"></figure><p>The image used in that exchange was created by Erich Friedman and is available on <a href="https://erich-friedman.github.io/packing/squinsqu/">his website</a>. In theory, 17 unit squares can pack into a 4.675 unit square, but I wanted to give it a little leeway when printing.</p><p>The print seen in the photos used 0.25mm layer height, using Overture Matte Green, sliced in PrusaSlicer, and printed on a Prusa Mini+. Support and infill settings should have no effect.</p><p>To be honest, at this scale it's very fiddly to play with. The pieces have a tendency to overlap when pushed together. But hey, it's enough to hand to a friend and challenge them to get all 17 squares to fit!</p>