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.
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This problem is related to the dodecahedron. Suppose each of 12 identical circle of flat radius r to be inscribed by each of 12 congruent regular pentagonal faces of a dodecahedron with edge length a . Then each pentagonal face will lie at a normal distance h from the center given as h = r ⎝ ⎜ ⎛ 2 1 + 5 ⎠ ⎟ ⎞
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 & h & hypotenuse R & apply Pythagoras Theorem as follows R = r 2 + ⎝ ⎜ ⎛ r ⎝ ⎜ ⎛ 2 1 + 5 ⎠ ⎟ ⎞ ⎠ ⎟ ⎞ 2 = r 2 5 + 5 r R ≈ 1 . 9 0 2