Friday, August 6, 2010

Fox 305


Yet again,
try to see the goodness,
see the beauty,
surrounding you.
Forget about the numbers, summations, subscripts.
Leave behind the accounts, stocks, papers, statistics.
Just leave yourselves to the arms of an ocean,
full of love and compassion.
Drift away with the blowing wind...
-- Dervish Fox

Monday, August 2, 2010

Fox 54 - Discussion

Bob Ryden provided a solution below. This has been the first attempt to solve this fox. His solution has not been confirmed yet, but it is published here to start the discussion. Wanna say somethin', comment it out!
Let the radius of the spheres = 1.
Inside is a tetrahedron whose vertices are the centers
of the spheres. Its edge length = 2
and its volume = (1/8) √3

On each face of the tetrahedron, build a triangular prism.
Volume of each prism = (1/2) 2 (√3) 1
Total volume of four prisms = 4√3

On each edge of the tetrahedron, build a cylindrical sector.
The angle of the sector = 360 – 90 – 90 – dihedral angle of the tetrahedron
= 360 – 90 – 90 – arccos (1/3) = approx. 109.47°
Length of each cylindrical sector = 2, radius = 1
Total volume of the six sectors
= 6 π (1^2) 2 (109.47 / 360) ≈ 11.46
Finally, there are pieces of the four original spheres that are not covered by any of the above. The four pieces together make one complete sphere, V = (4/3)π.

Total volume is the sum
tetrahedron + 4 prisms + 6 cylindrical sectors + sphere
= approx. 23.52