Largest sphere in the space between dense packed spheres

  • Context: Undergrad 
  • Thread starter Thread starter iantresman
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Space Sphere Spheres
Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
4 replies · 2K views
iantresman
Messages
67
Reaction score
2
If I consider a tetrahedron of four densely packed spheres of unit radius, what it the radius of the largest sized sphere that can fit in the space in between?
FCC_closed_packing_tetrahedron_(4).jpg
 

Attachments

  • FCC_closed_packing_tetrahedron_(4).jpg
    FCC_closed_packing_tetrahedron_(4).jpg
    14.9 KB · Views: 1,036
Mathematics news on Phys.org
I didn't know where to start, whether drawing a tetrahedron and 2D circles is relevant.
 
Thread closed, as it is a homework type question.

A reminder: To qualify as homework merely the problem itself is taken into account, not its real life origin, which we cannot know anything about. So if a problem is of numerical nature or involves an otherwise special example, then it's likely homework. We request our users of the homework section to use and fill out the template, which will automatically be inserted there, esp. part 3, which covers own efforts. It helps us a lot in order to solve the obstacles the user might have.

Thank you.