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research article
On Sphere-Filling Ropes
Gerlach, Henryk
•
von der Mosel, Heiko
What is the longest rope on the unit sphere? Intuition tells us that the answer to this packing problem depends on the rope's thickness. For a countably infinite number of prescribed thickness values we construct and classify all solution curves. The simplest ones are similar to the seam lines of a tennis ball; others exhibit a striking resemblance to Turing patterns in chemistry, or to ordered phases of long elastic rods stuffed into spherical shells.
Type
research article
Web of Science ID
WOS:000297780200001
Authors
Gerlach, Henryk
•
von der Mosel, Heiko
Publication date
2011
Published in
Volume
118
Start page
863
End page
876
Peer reviewed
REVIEWED
EPFL units
Available on Infoscience
June 12, 2012
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