Workshop 3 - Theatre Bookings (Bin-Packing)

Workshop 3 - Theatre Bookings (Bin-Packing)

You’re in charge of organising bookings and seating for a theatre company. You have to decide who sits where, if anyone sits by themselves, and what to do with people who book in a group. What’s the most efficient way to seat people? How do you take into account audience preferences? Did you know that there are bin-packing algorithms that can help?

Curriculum areas covered:
GCSE:

• whole number theory
• structure & calculation
  A-Level; Decision/Discrete maths:
• definition of an algorithm
• working with & implementing algorithms
• awareness of uses and limitations of algorithms
• bin packing algorithms

This pack includes:
 Cover Sheet
 Theatre Modelling Pack (theatre seating grid and booking groups)
 Presentation
 Pros and Cons of Algorithms Sheet
 Teacher Notes
 Student worksheet
 Answer Sheet

The OR technique behind this is algorithm is more formally known as a bin packing algorithm because one is packing different groups sizes and seeing how many “bins” (i.e. rows, in this case) the group sizes fit in, in order to use up the minimum amount of space possible. For more information visit our website: theorsociety .com