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The Pursuit of Perfect Packing

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The book is aimed at a general audience rather than to professional mathematicians. Therefore, it avoids mathematical proofs and is otherwise not very technical. However, it contains pointers to the mathematical literature where readers more expert in these topics can find more detail. Avoiding proof
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Reviewer Johann Linhart complains that (in the first edition) some figures are inaccurately drawn. And although finding the book "entertaining and easy to read", William Satzer finds it "frustrating" in the lack of detail in its stories. Nevertheless, Linhart and reviewer
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calls it "a treasure trove of intriguing examples" and "a real gem". And despite complaining about a format that mixes footnote markers into mathematical formulas, and the illegibility of some figures, Michael Fox recommends it to "any mathematics or science library".
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of the Kepler conjecture on optimal sphere packing in three dimensions, announced shortly before the publication of the book and one of its central topics, is hundreds of pages long.
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As well, the book includes biographical sketches of some of the contributors to this field, and histories of their work in this area, including
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may have been a necessary decision as some proofs in this area defy summarization: the proof by
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The mathematical topics described in the book include
32:. It was written by physicists Tomaso Aste and 76:, and higher-dimensional sphere packing), the 8: 258: 256: 254: 252: 304: 302: 300: 298: 296: 294: 178: 176: 174: 156:highly recommend the book, and reviewer 335: 333: 170: 211: 209: 207: 205: 7: 216:Fox, Michael (Jul 2001), "Review of 16:Book on packing problems in geometry 309:Linhart, Johann (2001), "Review of 196:Mathematical Association of America 14: 345:The Pursuit of Perfect Packing 311:The Pursuit of Perfect Packing 268:The Pursuit of Perfect Packing 218:The Pursuit of Perfect Packing 186:The Pursuit of Perfect Packing 21:The Pursuit of Perfect Packing 1: 350:American Mathematical Monthly 98:random sequential adsorption 343:(January 2006), "Review of 266:(January 2010), "Review of 104:, the seeds of plants, and 421: 286:10.1080/00107510903021467 223:The Mathematical Gazette 90:Delaunay triangulations 82:Weaire–Phelan structure 405:2008 non-fiction books 400:2000 non-fiction books 139:Audience and reception 38:doi:10.1887/0750306483 316:Mathematical Reviews 273:Contemporary Physics 78:Honeycomb conjecture 94:Apollonian gaskets 395:Mathematics books 74:Kepler conjecture 54:978-1-4200-6817-7 412: 390:Packing problems 374: 373: 363:10.2307/27641857 337: 328: 327: 306: 289: 288: 260: 247: 246: 230:(503): 370–372, 213: 200: 199: 180: 154:Stephen Blundell 129:Osborne Reynolds 86:Voronoi diagrams 26:packing problems 420: 419: 415: 414: 413: 411: 410: 409: 380: 379: 378: 377: 339: 338: 331: 308: 307: 292: 264:Blundell, S. J. 262: 261: 250: 236:10.2307/3622070 215: 214: 203: 182: 181: 172: 167: 141: 113:Johannes Kepler 106:columnar basalt 68:(including the 62: 17: 12: 11: 5: 418: 416: 408: 407: 402: 397: 392: 382: 381: 376: 375: 341:Radin, Charles 329: 290: 248: 201: 169: 168: 166: 163: 140: 137: 121:Joseph Plateau 70:Tammes problem 66:sphere packing 61: 58: 15: 13: 10: 9: 6: 4: 3: 2: 417: 406: 403: 401: 398: 396: 393: 391: 388: 387: 385: 372: 368: 364: 360: 356: 352: 351: 346: 342: 336: 334: 330: 326: 322: 318: 317: 312: 305: 303: 301: 299: 297: 295: 291: 287: 283: 279: 275: 274: 269: 265: 259: 257: 255: 253: 249: 245: 241: 237: 233: 229: 225: 224: 219: 212: 210: 208: 206: 202: 198:, August 2008 197: 193: 189: 187: 179: 177: 175: 171: 164: 162: 159: 158:Charles Radin 155: 149: 147: 138: 136: 134: 130: 126: 122: 118: 117:Stephen Hales 114: 109: 107: 103: 99: 95: 91: 87: 83: 79: 75: 71: 67: 59: 57: 55: 51: 47: 46:0-7503-0648-3 43: 39: 35: 31: 27: 24:is a book on 23: 22: 357:(1): 87–90, 354: 348: 344: 314: 310: 280:(1): 94–95, 277: 271: 267: 227: 221: 217: 191: 185: 150: 146:Thomas Hales 142: 133:J. D. Bernal 110: 102:soap bubbles 63: 34:Denis Weaire 20: 19: 18: 192:MAA Reviews 184:"Review of 125:Lord Kelvin 384:Categories 165:References 371:27641857 80:and the 30:geometry 325:1786410 244:3622070 369:  323:  242:  131:, and 72:, the 60:Topics 52:  44:  367:JSTOR 240:JSTOR 88:and 50:ISBN 42:ISBN 359:doi 355:113 347:", 313:", 282:doi 270:", 232:doi 220:", 56:). 28:in 386:: 365:, 353:, 332:^ 321:MR 319:, 293:^ 278:51 276:, 251:^ 238:, 228:85 226:, 204:^ 194:, 190:, 173:^ 135:. 127:, 123:, 119:, 115:, 96:, 92:, 84:, 40:, 361:: 284:: 234:: 188:"

Index

packing problems
geometry
Denis Weaire
doi:10.1887/0750306483
ISBN
0-7503-0648-3
ISBN
978-1-4200-6817-7
sphere packing
Tammes problem
Kepler conjecture
Honeycomb conjecture
Weaire–Phelan structure
Voronoi diagrams
Delaunay triangulations
Apollonian gaskets
random sequential adsorption
soap bubbles
columnar basalt
Johannes Kepler
Stephen Hales
Joseph Plateau
Lord Kelvin
Osborne Reynolds
J. D. Bernal
Thomas Hales
Stephen Blundell
Charles Radin

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