Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 April 2009
An (n + 1, n2 + n + 1)-packing is a collection of blocks, each of size n + 1, chosen from a set of size n2 + n + 1, such that no pair of points is contained in more than one block. If any two blocks contain a common point, then the packing can be extended to a projective plane of order n, provided the number of blocks is sufficiently large. We study packings which have a pair of disjoint blocks (such a packing clearly cannot be extended to a projective plane of order n). No such packing can contain more than n2 + n/2 blocks. Also, if n is the order of a projective plane, then we can construct such a packing with n2 + 1 blocks.