Though I solved it in 49 moves (yay me), I realized when thinking about efficiency, it didn't take into consideration two important things: 1) all of the turns I was making in order to be most efficient, whereas overlapping a few times would have probably taken less time, and 2) I spent a lot of thinking on the spot, as to what was the most efficient path, rather than moving the mower.. so while I only took 49 moves, the time spent on inaction may have balanced the scales with someone who just kept moving.

There's a life lesson in there somewhere, I'm sure!

This is a very different problem than actual efficiency when mowing a lawn or vacuuming a rub. Turning takes more work and time, and you miss a part of the 'square' when you are turning (the arc of the curve is not a straight line). In addition, vacuums especially have an area at the edge of the machine that is not cleaned as well, which is why you want a bit of overlap in your lines.

Plus, when mowing a lawn, you often want to leave a nice pattern, so you cant just go for pure efficiency.

I have a small yard and I'm not optimizing for the fewest moves, I'm optimizing for both the longest continuous lines (because I think they look nicest) and the shortest distance to carry the clippings at the end.

I have a different definition of optimal to this game.

The author's objective function is incorrect, negating the core claim.

> You’ve probably done something like mow a lawn or vacuum a rug hundreds of times without thinking much about it. Some part of your brain works out a route that’s usually good enough to get the job done. People are actually pretty good at this, and better than you’d guess for a problem that is hard for computers. We wanted to see it for ourselves, so we built a lawn and asked people to mow it.

Is there supposed to be more content than this?

... If JavaScript is required to view more content than this, why?

Semi-related: Worked as a landscaper during my youth, one of my first jobs

I used to think that the line patterns mowed into grass were a purely aesthetic thing.

It turns out, the lines are mowed in a rotation to prevent wearing out the grass and causing damage. First you mow length-wise, then width-wise, then diagonally, finally diagonally in the opposite direction, before cycling through again.

Useless information for you today.

When I mow lawns I teleport forward 6ft at a time and then a 6x6 square of grass vanishes beneath me.

In the nude.