Mathematics and Computer Information Science Seminar
Stephanie Vance, professor at Adams State College, will present "Sphere Packing and the Kissing Number Problems." The sphere packing problem asks how densely solid identical spheres can be packed into a very large space (like oranges in the produce section). In this talk, we'll discuss the classical sphere packing problem and its generalization to N-dimensional space (which has an interesting connection to digital communications).
| When |
Nov 05, 2009 from 02:30 pm to 04:30 pm |
|---|---|
| Where | Hurst 101 |
| Contact Name | Bob Cohen |
| Contact Phone | 943-2111 |
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Nearly 400 years ago, Kepler wrote about this problem and conjectured that the cannon-ball packing that you see in the produce section of your local grocery story is one of the best possible arrangements. Although seemingly obvious, it wasn't proved until recently by Thomas Hales in a series of six lengthy papers totaling more than 200 pages and with the aid of a massive computer calculation.
Refreshments will be served.
