Solving seemingly simple math problems using Perl
Group Dynamic

Some mathematical puzzles initially sound easy to solve. Those who actually try, however, will see how quickly the problems can become difficult.
Almost 20 years ago, in the warm summer of 1996, I was earning my money as a developer at a well-known software company east of Munich when a colleague excitedly reported a simple-sounding, but apparently difficult-to-solve, problem.
The principal of a school was confronted with the task of dividing nine teachers, 27 female students, and 18 male students into nine groups that would change in such a way that the students would sit in class with different teachers and different classmates each day. Each group was to consist of exactly one teacher, two boys, and three girls, and nine group classes were to take place in different classrooms each day, with each class taught by one of the nine teachers. For how many days could the school go ahead with lessons without the group compositions overlapping? Maybe five?
"Nothing easier than that!" my colleagues and I shouted immediately. We put our project on hold for a while and started to type the first programs on our workstations. Figure 1 shows the first attempt with a simple algorithm that populates nine groups with the same teachers, and not-yet allocated students, every day. It keeps a record of who has already been together with whom and simply takes the next student from the not-allocated pool if there is an overlap.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
Akamai Will Host kernel.org
The organization dedicated to cloud-based solutions has agreed to host kernel.org to deliver long-term stability for the development team.
-
Linux Kernel 6.14 Released
The latest Linux kernel has arrived with extra Rust support and more.
-
EndeavorOS Mercury Neo Available
A new release from the EndeavorOS team ships with Plasma 6.3 and other goodies.
-
Fedora 42 Beta Has Arrived
The Fedora Project has announced the availability of the first beta release for version 42 of the open-source distribution.
-
Dash to Panel Maintainer Quits
Charles Gagnon has stepped away as maintainer of the popular Dash to Panel Gnome extension.
-
CIQ Releases Security-Hardened Version of Rocky Linux
If you're looking for an enterprise-grade Linux distribution that is hardened for business use, there's a new version of Rocky Linux that's sure to make you and your company happy.
-
Gnome’s Dash to Panel Extension Gets a Massive Update
If you're a fan of the Gnome Dash to Panel extension, you'll be thrilled to hear that a new version has been released with a dock mode.
-
Blender App Makes it to the Big Screen
The animated film "Flow" won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature at the 97th Academy Awards held on March 2, 2025 and Blender was a part of it.
-
Linux Mint Retools the Cinnamon App Launcher
The developers of Linux Mint are working on an improved Cinnamon App Launcher with a better, more accessible UI.
-
New Linux Tool for Security Issues
Seal Security is launching a new solution to automate fixing Linux vulnerabilities.