Close-packing of equal spheres

In geometry, close-packing of equal spheres is a dense arrangement of congruent spheres in an infinite, regular arrangement (or lattice). Carl Friedrich Gauss proved that the highest average density – that is, the greatest fraction of space occupied by spheres – that can be achieved by a lattice packing is π 3 2 ≈ 0.74048 {\textstyle {\frac {\pi }{3{\sqrt {2}}}}\approx 0.74048} .