Spheres packed in a spherical shell.

Geometry Level 5

Four equal spheres of diameter 10 mm are snugly packed in a large spherical shell of diameter d. What is the minimum value of d (in mm.)


The answer is 22.24744871.

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1 solution

In general, join the centers of all four equal spheres of radius r to get a regular tetrahedron & then distance of vertex from the center of tetrahedron thus one can easily find the minimum radius R of spherical shell

R m i n = distance of apex from center of tetrahedron + radius of small sphere R_{min}=\text{distance of apex from center of tetrahedron }+\text{radius of small sphere}

R m i n = r 3 2 + r = r ( 3 2 + 1 ) R_{min}=r\sqrt{\frac{3}{2}}+r=r\left(\sqrt{\frac{3}{2}}+1\right)

or minimum diameter D m i n = 2 R m i n = 2 r ( 3 2 + 1 ) = d ( 3 2 + 1 ) D_{min}=2R_{min}=2r\left(\sqrt{\frac{3}{2}}+1\right)=d\left(\sqrt{\frac{3}{2}}+1\right)

where, d is the diameter of equal spheres,

now, setting the value of d=10 mm, minimum diameter D m i n = 10 ( 3 2 + 1 ) 22.24744871 m m D_{min}=10\left(\sqrt{\frac{3}{2}}+1\right)\approx 22.24744871 mm

In general, join the centers of all four equal spheres of radius r to get a regular tetrahedron & then distance of vertex from the center of tetrahedron thus one can easily find the minimum radius R of spherical shell

How do you show that this is the optimal configuration?

Pi Han Goh - 4 years, 7 months ago

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yeah if u showed that it would be helpful

Rohith M.Athreya - 4 years, 6 months ago

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