Packings On The Sphere
A related problem is to determine the lowest-energy arrangement of identically interacting points that are constrained to lie within a given surface. The Thomson problem deals with the lowest energy distribution of identical electric charges on the surface of a sphere. The Tammes problem is a generalisation of this, dealing with maximising the minimum distance between circles on sphere. This is analogous to distributing non-point charges on a sphere.
Read more about this topic: Circle Packing
Famous quotes containing the word sphere:
“O sun,
Burn the great sphere thou mov’st in! darkling stand
The varying shore o’ th’ world!”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)