Re: Packing problem


"news.skynet.be" <bob@bob> wrote in message news:43df9d0a$0$29466

> Given a finite set of infinite, one-dimensional bins and a collection of
> one-dimensional items. I want to distribute the items over the bins so
> that the variance of the bin contents is minimal. What algorithm do I use?
> (As a silly heuristic, I come up with: sort the items by length and put
> them, in order, from long to short, in the least filled bin)

I'll check out Robert's post.

Let me note that the above proposed wild guess is not correct.

Example: distribute 2,3,3,4,7,8,9 over 3 bins

Silly-heuristic
Bin 1: 9+3=12
Bin 2: 8+3=11
Bin 3: 7+4+2=13

However zero variance is attainable in this example:
Bin 1: 9+3=12
Bin 2: 8+4=12
Bin 3: 7+3+2=12


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