News Release
First Published Account of
Sphere Packing Result
For further information, contact:
Sally Pobojewski
News and Information Services
University of Michigan
Email: pobo@umich.edu
Telephone: 734-647-1844
Fax: 734-764-7084
March 3, 2000
PROVIDENCE, RI---Thomas Hales made headlines with his recent proof of Kepler's
sphere packing problem, a conundrum that had gone unsolved for four centuries.
The article "Cannonballs and Honeycombs" is Hales's first published account of
the proof. In the article, he moves beyond Kepler's problem to consider other
geometric questions whose answers seemed intuitively clear but which eluded
mathematical proof.
"Why is the gulf so large between intuition and proof?" Hales asks. "Geometry
taunts and defies us." Consider the "Honeycomb Conjecture", which asks whether
the hexagonal pattern found across the surface of honeycombs is the most
efficient way to divide up the surface. Here "most efficient" means using the
least amount of beeswax to enclose the maximum area. Geometric intuition told
the ancients this conjecture should be true, but mathematical proof was 2000
years coming: Hales finally proved it in 1999.
A similar problem arises with soap foams---but in this case an intuitively
reasonable answer turns out in fact to be wrong. Assuming that all the bubbles
in the foam are the same size, what shape encloses the greatest volume with the
least amount of soap film? In the 19th century, Lord Kelvin came up with what
seemed to be a reasonable answer. In 1994, two physicists proved him wrong.
To this day no one knows what the most efficient shape is.
The article, "Cannonballs and
Honeycombs," appears in the April 2000 issue of the Notices of the
AMS.
Founded in 1999 to further mathematical research and scholarship, the
30,000-member AMS fulfills its mission through programs and services that
promote mathematical research and its uses, strengthen mathematical education,
and foster awareness and appreciation of mathematics and its connections to
other disciplines and to everyday life.
|
