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ProofofBoundingBoxTheorem

Theorem
Arectangleofwidthdandheight2dcancontainatmostsixpointssuchthatanytwopointsareat
distanceatleastd

Proof
Thiswillbeanintuitiveproofbyconstruction.Weshallbegintoplacepointsintotheboxuntilitis
impossibletoaddanymore.Firstimagineacircleofradiusdaroundeachpointrepresentingtheareathat
wearenotallowedtoinsertanotherpointinto.Wecanminimizetheoverlappingareaofsuchacircle
withtherectanglebyplacingthepointonthecorneroftherectangleasinthefollowingfigure:

Hencewecanplacepointssomewhereinsidethelightblueareaorontheedgesofthecircles.Hencewe
putonemoreinthemiddleoftheleftsideleavingtheentireboxcoveredexceptfortheremainingtwo
cornersandthemiddleoftherightside(allthreeofthesepointsbeingrightontheboundariesofthe
circles).Oncewedothiswehavethefollowingstructure:

http://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~cs251/ClosestPair/proofbox.html

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2/28/2015

ProofofBoundingBoxTheorem

Notethattherearenowsixpointsinthesquare.Ifyoutrytomoveanyoneofthesepointsinany
directionwithintheboundariesoftherectangle,thenyouwouldbemovingtwopointstooclose
toghether.
Hencewecan'tpossiblyaddanymorepointstothisrectanglewithoutputtingviolatingthedistance
propertybetweenthepoints.Thereforesixisthemaximumnumberofpointswecanhave.
QED.
SamBakhtiarSANJABI
Lastmodified:WedApr1201:00:00EDT2000

http://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~cs251/ClosestPair/proofbox.html

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