How many 12 inch blocks to make 4 foot circle?

This is a non-trivial question because the curvature of the circle means that in some cases a whole block is required to cover only a tiny part of the circle.

Covering a circle with a diameter of 4 feet would require 16 blocks measuring 12 inch * 12 inch. This is despite the fact that the total area of the blocks is more than 27% larger than the area of the circle. This was proved by Maurizio Morandi in May 2009.

If the 12 inch blocks are blocks comprising 12 blocks of 1 sq inch each, which can be configured as 2*6 rectangles, or 2+3+3+2+2 shapes, the the problem becomes hugely complex.