this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2026
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This comes from a math problem where the squares size is fixed and you try to minimize the area they fit in
Yeah I know, but it's terrible waffle design, there's big flat chunks without syrup squares. It's a huge amount of wasted area unable to hold syrup in any meaningful volume. It's sad, really.
Edit: not to mention the waffle in the picture is clearly big enough to hold 25 squares the same size as those pictured! I thought these memes were supposed to be scientific...
You can't fit 25 squares of the same size in that space. If you check the top row there's 4 squares and space for slightly less than one more square, you can't fit a 5x5 grid there unless you have smaller squares or a bigger waffle
Maybe you couldn't, I absolutely could. The space just looks smaller because there's a diagonal square butting into it. Doesn't matter anyway, making the squares smaller was my original comment that sparked this conversation, so I'm right both ways.
No, you're not. It's square packing, this is the optimal arrangement of 17 squares inside another square as far as we're currently aware with a side length of 4.6756 inner squares. You cannot fit 5 squares in the space of 4.7 squares of the same size.
It's also a well-known meme and this is a science meme community.
I'm not concerned about the optimal packing of 17 squares, I'm talking about the waffle in the picture, which visually appears to have plenty of room for 25 squares. I'm guessing it's hard to get a waffle to the exact specifications of a complicated mathematical model, given its composition and construction. But just look at it with your eyes, there is very obviously enough room on that bottom row for two more squares. And if squares still work they way they did when I first learned about them as a young child, that makes room for 25 total small squares. 🤷♂️