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This is a front-end for the Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences, made by Christian Perfect. The idea is to provide OEIS entries in non-ancient HTML, and then to think about how they're presented visually. The source code is on GitHub.

A000105 Number of free polyominoes (or square animals) with n cells.

Original entry on oeis.org

1, 1, 1, 2, 5, 12, 35, 108, 369, 1285, 4655, 17073, 63600, 238591, 901971, 3426576, 13079255, 50107909, 192622052, 742624232, 2870671950, 11123060678, 43191857688, 168047007728, 654999700403, 2557227044764, 9999088822075, 39153010938487, 153511100594603
Offset: 0

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Author

N. J. A. Sloane

Keywords

Comments

For n>0, a(n) + A030228(n) = A000988(n) because the number of free polyominoes plus the number of polyominoes lacking bilateral symmetry equals the number of one-sided polyominoes. - Graeme McRae, Jan 05 2006
The possible symmetry groups of a (nonempty) polyomino are the 10 subgroups of the dihedral group D_8 of order 8: D_8, 1, Z_2 (five times), Z_4, (Z_2)^2 (twice). - Benoit Jubin, Dec 30 2008
Names for first few polyominoes: monomino, domino, tromino, tetromino, pentomino, hexomino, heptomino, octomino, enneomino, decomino, hendecomino, dodecomino, ...
Limit_{n->oo} a(n)^(1/n) = mu with 3.98 < mu < 4.64 (quoted by Castiglione et al., with a reference to Barequet et al., 2006, for the lower bound). The upper bound is due to Klarner and Rivest, 1973. By Madras, 1999, it is now known that this limit, also known as Klarner's constant, is equal to the limit growth rate lim_{n->oo} a(n+1)/a(n).
Polyominoes are worth exploring in the elementary school classroom. Students in grade 2 can reproduce the first 6 terms. Grade 3 students can explore area and perimeter. Grade 4 students can talk about polyomino symmetries.
The pentominoes should be singled out for special attention: 1) they offer a nice, manageable set that a teacher can commercially acquire without too much expense. 2) There are also deeply strategic games and perplexing puzzles that are great for all students. 3) A fraction of students will become engaged because of the beautiful solutions.
Conjecture: Almost all polyominoes are holey. In other words, A000104(n)/a(n) tends to 0 for increasing n. - John Mason, Dec 11 2021 (This is true, a consequence of Madras's 1999 pattern theorem. - Johann Peters, Jan 06 2024)

Examples

			a(0) = 1 as there is 1 empty polyomino with #cells = 0. - _Fred Lunnon_, Jun 24 2020

References

  • S. W. Golomb, Polyominoes, Appendix D, p. 152; Princeton Univ. Pr. NJ 1994
  • J. E. Goodman and J. O'Rourke, editors, Handbook of Discrete and Computational Geometry, CRC Press, 1997, p. 229.
  • D. A. Klarner, The Mathematical Gardner, p. 252 Wadsworth Int. CA 1981
  • W. F. Lunnon, Counting polyominoes, pp. 347-372 of A. O. L. Atkin and B. J. Birch, editors, Computers in Number Theory. Academic Press, NY, 1971.
  • W. F. Lunnon, Counting hexagonal and triangular polyominoes, pp. 87-100 of R. C. Read, editor, Graph Theory and Computing. Academic Press, NY, 1972.
  • George E. Martin, Polyominoes - A Guide to Puzzles and Problems in Tiling, The Mathematical Association of America, 1996
  • Ed Pegg, Jr., Polyform puzzles, in Tribute to a Mathemagician, Peters, 2005, pp. 119-125.
  • R. C. Read, Some applications of computers in graph theory, in L. W. Beineke and R. J. Wilson, editors, Selected Topics in Graph Theory, Academic Press, NY, 1978, pp. 417-444.
  • N. J. A. Sloane, A Handbook of Integer Sequences, Academic Press, 1973 (includes this sequence).
  • N. J. A. Sloane and Simon Plouffe, The Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences, Academic Press, 1995 (includes this sequence).

Links

Crossrefs

Sequences classifying polyominoes by symmetry group: A006746, A006747, A006748, A006749, A056877, A056878, A142886, A144553, A144554.
Cf. A001168 (not reduced by D_8 symmetry), A000104 (no holes), A054359, A054360, A001419, A000988, A030228 (chiral polyominoes).
See A006765 for another version.
Cf. also A000577, A000228, A103465, A210996 (bisection).
Excluding a(0), 8th and 9th row of A366766.

Programs

  • Mathematica
    (* In this program by Jaime Rangel-Mondragón, polyominoes are represented as a list of Gaussian integers. *)
polyominoQ[p_List] := And @@ ((IntegerQ[Re[#]] && IntegerQ[Im[#]])& /@ p);
rot[p_?polyominoQ] := I*p;
ref[p_?polyominoQ] := (# - 2 Re[#])& /@ p;
cyclic[p_] := Module[{i = p, ans = {p}}, While[(i = rot[i]) != p, AppendTo[ans, i]]; ans];
dihedral[p_?polyominoQ] := Flatten[{#, ref[#]}& /@ cyclic[p], 1];
canonical[p_?polyominoQ] := Union[(# - (Min[Re[p]] + Min[Im[p]]*I))& /@ p];
allPieces[p_] := Union[canonical /@ dihedral[p]];
polyominoes[1] = {{0}};
polyominoes[n_] := polyominoes[n] = Module[{f, fig, ans = {}}, fig = ((f = #1; ({f, #1 + 1, f, #1 + I, f, #1 - 1, f, #1 - I}&) /@ f)&) /@ polyominoes[n - 1]; fig = Partition[Flatten[fig], n]; f = Select[Union[canonical /@ fig], Length[#1] == n &]; While[f != {}, ans = {ans, First[f]}; f = Complement[f, allPieces[First[f]]]]; Partition[Flatten[ans], n]];
a[n_] := a[n] = Length[ polyominoes[n]];
Table[Print["a(", n, ") = ", a[n]]; a[n], {n, 1, 12}] (* Jean-François Alcover, Mar 24 2015, after Jaime Rangel-Mondragón *)

Formula

a(n) = A000104(n) + A001419(n). - R. J. Mathar, Jun 15 2014
a(n) = A006749(n) + A006746(n) + A006748(n) + A006747(n) + A056877(n) + A056878(n) + A144553(n) + A142886(n). - Andrew Howroyd, Dec 04 2018
a(n) = A259087(n) + A259088(n). - R. J. Mathar, May 22 2019
a(n) = (4*A006746(n) + 4*A006748(n) + 4*A006747(n) + 6*A056877(n) + 6*A056878(n) + 6*A144553(n) + 7*A142886(n) + A001168(n))/8. - John Mason, Nov 14 2021

Extensions

Extended to n=28 by Tomás Oliveira e Silva
Link updated by William Rex Marshall, Dec 16 2009
Edited by Gill Barequet, May 24 2011
Misspelling "polyominos" corrected by Don Knuth, May 03 2016
a(29)-a(45), a(47) from Toshihiro Shirakawa
a(46) calculated using values from A001168 (I. Jensen), A006748/A056877/A056878/A144553/A142886 (Robert A. Russell) and A006746/A006747 (John Mason), Nov 14 2021

Started in 1964 by Neil J. A. Sloane | Maintained by The OEIS Foundation Inc.

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