M&Ms and sphere packing

Experiments and simulations have found M&Ms to have a very good packing density. They achieve a 71% density in random arrangements, compared to 64% for spheres (and 74% for regularly stacked spheres).

You've got to love M&Ms ;-)

Links:
Sphere packing problem (Wikipedia).
Sphere packing problem (Mathworld).

Update:
Roland Piquepaille points out "A team of computer scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing (SCAI) has just developed Contpack, a 3D software to solve this problem and to maximize the volume utilization of containers".

Posted by Julien on February 13, 2004. Permalink
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