geometry Geometry (; ) is a branch of mathematics concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. Geometry is, along with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. A mathematician w ...

, the Tammes problem is a problem in packing a given number of points on the surface of a sphere such that the minimum distance between points is maximized. It is named after the Dutch botanist Pieter Merkus Lambertus Tammes (the nephew of pioneering botanist Jantina Tammes) who posed the problem in his 1930 doctoral dissertation on the distribution of pores on

pollen Pollen is a powdery substance produced by most types of flowers of seed plants for the purpose of sexual reproduction. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced Gametophyte#Heterospory, microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm ...

grains. It can be viewed as a particular special case of the generalized Thomson problem of minimizing the total

Coulomb force Coulomb's inverse-square law, or simply Coulomb's law, is an experimental law of physics that calculates the amount of force between two electrically charged particles at rest. This electric force is conventionally called the ''electrostatic ...

of electrons in a spherical arrangement. Thus far, solutions have been proven only for small numbers of circles: 3 through 14, and 24. There are conjectured solutions for many other cases, including those in higher dimensions. Coral Sphere Flynn Reef

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; Journal articles * * * * * ; Books * *

External links

* .
Packing and Covering of Congruent Spherical Caps on a Sphere

Science of Spherical Arrangements
( PPT).
General discussion of packing points on surfaces
with focus on tori (PDF). {{Packing problem Circle packing Spherical geometry Palynology Unsolved problems in geometry

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