¶ Closest Packing of Spheres
← Closest Packing of Spheres | Closest Packing of Spheres →
Index Entry
Closest Packing of Spheres: Concave Octahedra and Concave Vector Equilibria:
“We find that in closest packed spheres there are only two shape spaces, what we call the concave vector equilibrium and the concave octahedron. . . One is an open condition of the vector equilibrium and the other is a contracted one of the octahedron. . . . We could take the original vector equilibrium and bend the edges inwardly and make it concave, or I could bend it outwardly and make spheres. It has possibly the first degree of contraction from vector equilibrium: it becomes a sphere or a space. If it bends inwardly it becomes spaces; and if it bends outwardly, they become spheres. We can then begin to call a space a concave vector equilibrium and we can call a sphere a convex vector equilibrium. Or we can call a space a concave octahedron-- which is one of the other kinds of transformations.”
¶ Citations
- Oregon Lecture #7, pp. 257-258. 11 Jul’62
