Letters.Sent packing I've often wondered about packing circles ("Circle game," SN: 4/21/01, p. 254) and have always assumed that it would get into messy numbers very quickly. Your article is a charming revelation. It says that if a, b, and c are integers, d will be one, too. I think this is true only if a, b, and c bear some relationship to each other. Try 1, 2, and 3. Yes. Try 2, 2, 5. No dice. On the other hand, tests indicate that if d does turn out to be an integer, you're off and running, Apparently e, f, g, and so forth will also be integers. Robert Link Old Lyme Old Lyme (līm), residential and resort town (1990 pop. 6,535), New London co., SE Conn., on Long Island Sound, at the mouth of the Connecticut River; settled c.1655, inc. 1855. , Conn. You're correct. If the curvatures of the four initial circles are integers, the curvature of every smaller circle is also an integer. --I. Peterson "Circle game" includes in its closing paragraph the observation by mathematician Jeffrey C. Lagarias that the research on packing circles within a circle has "no foreseeable application in mind." One practical application that occurred to us a few years ago was tightly packing a metal tube with small wires. Our U.S. Patent 5,962,790 describes our interest in filling the tube with the maximum number of wires of one or more given sizes. The packed tube acts as an ultrasonic waveguide waveguide, device that controls the propagation of an electromagnetic wave so that the wave is forced to follow a path defined by the physical structure of the guide. in industrial flow meters. Larry Lynnworth and Yi Liu Waltham, Mass. Without a map Regarding "Sounds of the universe confirm Big Bang big bang Model of the origin of the universe, which holds that it emerged from a state of extremely high temperature and density in an explosive expansion 10 billion–15 billion years ago. " (SN: 4/28/01, p. 261), wherein Cosmic Background Explorer Cosmic Background Explorer: see infrared astronomy. Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) U.S. satellite that from 1989 to 1993 mapped the cosmic background radiation field. In 1964, microwave radiation was discovered that permeated the cosmos uniformly. (COBE COBE: see infrared astronomy. ) findings are surpassed by BOOMERANG (Balloon Observations of Millimeter Extragalactic ex·tra·ga·lac·tic adj. Located or originating beyond the Milky Way. Adj. 1. extragalactic - outside or beyond a galaxy; "extragalactic nebula" Radiation and Geophysics) data, can you help me understand what happened to the Microwave Anistrophy Probe (MAP)? It was expected to surpass COBE in many ways. MAP was to launch in November 2000, establish a sun-sheltered position at LeGrange point 2, and begin sending data in February or March 2001. This has never been reported in the popular press. Harvey Lehman Millersville, Pa. The Microwave Anistrophy Probe (MAP) will indeed revolutionize studies of the cosmic microwave background Noun 1. cosmic microwave background - (cosmology) the cooled remnant of the hot big bang that fills the entire universe and can be observed today with an average temperature of about 2. , providing the most detailed look yet at this relic radiation from the Big Bang. The follow-up mission to NASA's pioneering satellite Cosmic Background Explorer, MAP is now scheduled for launch at the end of June. It will take until the fall to reach the orbit that researchers have specified for it to begin scanning the entire sky at microwave wavelengths. MAP scientists should have much to say about the microwave background microwave background See cosmic background radiation. sometime in 2002. --R. Cowen |
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