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THE KISSING NUMBERS OF CONVEX BODIES — A BRIEF SURVEY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 1998

C. ZONG
C. ZONG
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT Institute of Mathematics, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, P. R. China
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Abstract

Nearly four hundred years ago, the cubic close-packing of equal spheres in R3 was discovered by Kepler [21], in which each sphere touches 12 others. In 1694, Gregory and Newton discussed the following thirteen spheres problem. Can a rigid material sphere be brought into contact with 13 other such spheres of the same size? Gregory believed ‘yes’, while Newton thought ‘no’.

Type
Research Article
Information
Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , January 1998 , pp. 1 - 10
Copyright
© The London Mathematical Society 1998

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