The biggest little polygon
Also known asbiggest little polygonlargest small polygon
Choose n points in the plane with pairwise distances at most 1 in strictly convex position, maximizing the area of the convex n-gon they span.
Formal definition
- ContainerUnconstrained in the plane: the only global constraint is diameter at most 1, with coordinates written inside [0, 1.5] × [0, 1.5]
- SubmissionExactly n points
- ConstraintsAll pairwise distances are at most 1, and every point is a strict vertex of the convex hull
- Areaqᵢ = (xᵢ,yᵢ) are the hull vertices ordered counterclockwise by the verifier (submissions need not be pre-sorted); internally, the verifier compares the shoelace value 2A(P) in exact arithmetic
- ObjectiveMaximize the area A(P) over all convex n-gons P of diameter at most 1
Getting a feel for it
Why only even n are included
For odd n, the regular n-gon is already known to maximize area among polygons of diameter 1. For even n, asymmetric polygons beat the regular n-gon; for instance, Graham's hexagon has nearly 4% more area than the regular hexagon of diameter 1. Accordingly, only even n are included here.
Known results
Reinhardt (1922) proved that regular polygons are optimal for odd n. For even n, optimal configurations have been proven for n = 6, 8, 10, and 12 (from Graham 1975 through Audet et al.), while n ≥ 14 has only numerical best-known constructions and remains open.
Current best solutions by n
Each parameter n is an independently scored sub-problem. Select any card to inspect the current record construction or submit a stronger solution.
Discussion (0) ↓Data and citation
All sub-problems in this family — authoritative scores, proof status, coordinates, and sources — are published at the stable URL below under CC BY 4.0. Because scores update as records fall, please cite the file's generatedAt timestamp.
GET https://minmaxarena.com/data/biggest-little-polygon.json
Cite the frozen 2026-10 edition: live records change, whereas a frozen edition stays fixed and reproducible.
GET https://minmaxarena.com/data/editions/2026-10/biggest-little-polygon.json
BibTeX (click to copy)
@misc{minmaxarena-biggest-little-polygon-2026-10,
title = {{The biggest little polygon} (P53)},
author = {{MinMax Arena}},
year = {2026},
note = {Machine-verified records, 2026-10 edition},
url = {https://minmaxarena.com/data/editions/2026-10/biggest-little-polygon.json},
license = {CC BY 4.0}
}Discussion
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