Twelve identical circles touching one another on a sphere

Geometry Level 5

Twelve identical circles, each having a flat radius r, are touching one another at 30 different points (i.e. each one exactly touches five other circles) on a spherical surface with a radius R. Find out the ratio R/r.

Details: Each of 12 identical circles exactly touches other five circles without overlapping thus they are closely packed & covering up the whole sphere.


The answer is 1.902113033.

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1 solution

This problem is related to the dodecahedron. Suppose each of 12 identical circle of flat radius r r to be inscribed by each of 12 congruent regular pentagonal faces of a dodecahedron with edge length a a . Then each pentagonal face will lie at a normal distance h h from the center given as h = r ( 1 + 5 2 ) \LARGE h=r \left(\frac{1+\sqrt{5}}{2}\right)

If we join mid-point of the edge of the dodecahedron with its center, we get a right triangle. Now, consider such a right triangle with orthogonal sides r r & h h & hypotenuse R R & apply Pythagoras Theorem as follows R = r 2 + ( r ( 1 + 5 2 ) ) 2 = r 5 + 5 2 \LARGE R=\sqrt{r^2+\left(r \left(\frac{1+\sqrt{5}}{2}\right) \right)^2}=r\sqrt{ \frac{5+\sqrt{5}}{2}} R r 1.902 \LARGE \frac{R}{r} \approx1.902

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