On: The Unexpected Elegance of Irrigation Systems from Above

Square packing density is pi/4 (~78.54%). The non regular packing approaches a hexagonal packing (pi*sqrt(3)/6 =~ 90.69%) for large N. For N=120 for example d=85% http://hydra.nat.uni-magdeburg.de/packing/csq/csq120.html

Does not seem practical in reality (39 or more systems instead of one). Maybe for extremely vast fields where you would have many systems anyway.

> 39 or more systems instead of one

They would need more irrigation systems if they packed the circles more tightly? Why?

The circles have to be smaller to be packed more tightly within a given square.