Let
be a sequence of mutually disjoint open balls, with centres xj and corresponding radii aj, each contained in the closed unit ball
in d-dimensional euclidean space, ℝd. Further we suppose, for simplicity, that the balls Bj are indexed so that aj≥aj+1. The set
![](//static.cambridge.org/content/id/urn%3Acambridge.org%3Aid%3Aarticle%3AS0025579300011566/resource/name/S0025579300011566_eqnU1.gif?pub-status=live)
obtained by removing, from
the balls {Bj} is called the residual set. We say that the balls {Bj} constitute a packing of
provided that λ(ℛ)=0, where λ denotes the d-dimensional Lebesgue measure. Thus it follows that
henceforth denoted by c(d), whilst the packing restraint ensures that
Larman [11] has noted that, under these circumstances, one also has
.