Sphere Packings
Have you ever wondered why sometimes when you buy two identical bags of Maltesers but find that they have a different amount inside? It is because of the packing properties of those delectable spheres. This phenomenon is explained by the highly reputable Lecturer Fabien Palillusson who has the famous quote “Wikipedia the Best source!” from the lecture on 8th October 2025 08/10/25.
Now without any jest, one of those packing properties is that spheres slip off each other and when there are enough spheres, they stick together from compression forces. This calculated by taking the number of spheres multiplied by the average volume of a sphere divided by the total volume occupied. It was found that there is a degree of randomness to result each time it was done.
Hexagonal or beehive style stacking was proved as the ultimate orange sphere fruit, also known as oranges, stack package holder. It was proven in the 18th centaury! For a 2D model. However, in 3D Kepler conjectured in 1611, and it was proven by Gauss in the 19th century. Furthermore, there was a proof by exhaustion where they manually calculated every scenario by Hales and Ferguson in 1998, where only recently their formal proof which was started in 2003 just finished in 2017 [1].
In 3D the maximum density packed was calculated for a random style, a square style and the best, hexagonal style, their rough scores were in order: 0.64, 0.524 and 0.74. there is a way to increase the value of these and that is by tapping the container at set amplitudes which seems to affect the third decimal point of the scores. However, even with this tapping for all amplitudes it seems unable to go above 0.64. For those questioning, why not apply force from above pressing the spheres down? [2] It was found out that it causes the packing to become loose and the bigger the force the looser the density becomes, just like your wallet whenever you see a bag of Maltesers.
69585
Your passage is engaging and informative, blending humour with scientific explanation effectively. Using Maltesers makes the technical idea of sphere packing more accessible.
The overall flow is understandable, but some sentences are long and complex. Try to split long sentences into shorter, direct ones to aid clarity. Otherwise a very good blog report !
56001
Overall presentation is good with name of speaker and date included, could add the title of the lecture. The blog is an accurate report of the take home message and I like that you have used real-world context to also help with understanding. I can tell you have done extra research but next time would be good to include a direct quote from your extra findings. Writing style is also very clear and at an appropriate level. A really good blog :)
90561
Great overall! Remember to add your references, but that’s a nitpick.
45170
it might just be me but the 3rd paragraph reads really disjointed, and seems like its trying to say things that aren’t relevant or make it more confusing to read “It was proven in the 18th centaury! For a 2D model. However, in 3D Kepler conjectured in 1611, and it was proven by Gauss in the 19th century.”
i acknowledge that i could very well be reading it wrong or misunderstanding, but i think this line specifically could be changed to increase clarity.
overall though, all the information is there and its an entertaining read, just have a gloss back over for grammar and missing words.