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Concept

Kepler conjecture

The image illustrates the Kepler conjecture, showcasing an arrangement of spheres in a face-centered cubic pattern with one sphere slightly offset to highlight the concept's core idea.

The claim, first made by Johannes Kepler in 1611, that no arrangement of equal spheres in three-dimensional space achieves a higher average density than the face-centred cubic packing used by every greengrocer stacking oranges. Density: roughly 74 percent. The conjecture resisted proof for nearly four centuries until Thomas Hales completed a computer-assisted argument in 1998, later formally verified by machine in 2014.

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