See: https://adventofcode.com/2015/day/2 ** Part 1 *** Purpose Given a list of dimensions for multiple boxes in the form l \times w \times h: #+begin_example 2x3x4 1x1x10 3x6x9 #+end_example We perform following calculation: #+begin_example 2*l*w + 2*w*h + 2*h*l #+end_example Plus the length of the smallest side... so: #+begin_example 2*l*w + 2*w*h + 2*h*l + min(l*w, w*h, h*l) #+end_example *** Method I'm not sure why this problem is titled "I was told there would be no math"---non-creative problems like these are easy to solve. It won't be hard to make the computer do the math: I'll start with the formula---a function which takes ~l,w,~ and ~h~, and does the above. Then parse a single line. Then put it in a loop and total! ** Part 2 *** Purpose The second part just gives us a new formula... #+begin_example min(2*(l+w), 2(w*h), 2(h*l)) + l*w*h #+end_example Yay... *** Method Same as above