Physics of board games and paper cuts - Kaare Hartvig Jensen (TU Denmark)

With many people confined to their homes, there has been a surge in board game sales and an associated increase in paper cuts from fumbling around with these often tightly sealed boxes and their contents. We first discuss the physics of opening and closing board game boxes, focusing on the effect of the lid geometry. Subsequently, we examine the likelihood of experiencing a paper cut when handling documents, magazines, and/or cardboard. Finally, constrained optimization problems are examined.