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The Kissing Numbers of Convex Bodies — A Brief Survey
Author(s) -
Zong C.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
bulletin of the london mathematical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.396
H-Index - 48
eISSN - 1469-2120
pISSN - 0024-6093
DOI - 10.1112/s0024609397003408
Subject(s) - spheres , mathematics , regular polygon , combinatorics , geometry , physics , astronomy
Nearly four hundred years ago, the cubic close‐packing of equal spheres in R 3 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’. 1991 Mathematics Subject Classication 11H31, 52C17.