Monday 18 February 2013

Proof by exhaustion •






Irregular table tennis balls.


When stacking spheres, there are two regular lattices that achieve the highest density. They differ in how the sheets are stacked upon one another, and are called face-centered cubic, and hexagonal close-packed. These formations have been used in models to describe the atomic arrangements of crystal structures. In many cases the atoms of a crystal pack together as tightly as possible.


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                                              ••                                               ••
                                             •••                                               •••
                                            ••••                                               ••••


I am interested in the way these mathematical objects coalesce. The repetition of spheres, creating volumes, invisible polyhedrons, with straight lines from curves.


©ADG2013

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