Judge's Commentary: The Outstanding Lawful Capacity Papers.

The article presents the author's comment on the findings of the papers, related to the creation of a mathematical model for deciding the maximum legal occupancy of public facilities, submitted for the 1999 Mathematical Contest in Modeling. The papers submitted displayed a wide range of modeling approaches. Among the models derived, one uses a graphical/network flow model, one employs a series of queues to handle the bottlenecks, another model tiles the room with one-person-sized hexagons and calculates the expected waiting limes for each, and one uses a sophisticated motion simulation model.