Given a large (generally non-integer) length x, the well-studied square packing problem asks how efficiently one can pack a square of side length x by non-overlapping unit squares. Let \(W(x)\) be the minimum area “wasted” in such a packing. Chung and Graham (Discrete Comput Geom 64(3):690–699, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00454-019-00088-9) claimed a proof that \(W(x) = O(x^{0.6})\) . This note identifies a calculation error in that paper that invalidates the claimed result. We illustrate the error in two ways: by directly analyzing where the mistake arose in an angle computation, and by checking against a simple geometric argument using the triangle inequality.
