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.)
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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 m i n = r 2 3 + r = r ( 2 3 + 1 )
or minimum diameter D m i n = 2 R m i n = 2 r ( 2 3 + 1 ) = d ( 2 3 + 1 )
where, d is the diameter of equal spheres,
now, setting the value of d=10 mm, minimum diameter D m i n = 1 0 ( 2 3 + 1 ) ≈ 2 2 . 2 4 7 4 4 8 7 1 m m