Cover $n$ points in the plane with $k$ circles of radius $1$
Use a greedy algorithm to cover your points with circular disks of radius 2. In other words, repeatedly choose an uncovered point, and cover it with a circular disk of radius 2 centered at the point. Now cover each of your disks with seven disks of radius 1.

Why does this work? Suppose that you covered the points using $k$ circular disks of radius 2 centered at the points $p_1,\ldots,p_k$. It is not hard to check that the distance between any two different points $p_i,p_j$ is larger than 2 (otherwise $p_j$ would have been covered by the disk around $p_i$, assuming $i &lt; j$), and so no circular disk of radius 1 can cover both $p_i$ and $p_j$. This implies that $k$ circular disks of radius 1 are needed to cover the points $p_1,\ldots,p_k$, and so at least $k$ are needed to cover the original set of points. The solution produced by the algorithm uses $7k$ circular disks.