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Mathematicians discover new way for spheres to 'kiss'

(www.quantamagazine.org)
161 points isaacfrond | 1 comments | 16 Jan 25 09:57 UTC | HN request time: 0.212s | source
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danwills ◴[16 Jan 25 11:34 UTC] No.42724002[source]▶
I'd really love to know what the mathematicians are actually doing when they work this stuff out? Is it all on computers now? Can they somehow visualize 24-dimensional-sphere-packings in their minds? Are they maybe rigorously checking results of a 'test function' that tells them they found a correct/optimal packing? I would love to know more about what the day-to-day work involved in this type of research actually would be!
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1. bell-cot ◴[16 Jan 25 12:06 UTC] No.42724210[source]▶
I suspect that you have plenty of company...but from a journalism PoV, those kind of things are where it gets tricky. Explaining in detail, and at length, is a lot more work than this short article. Then there are the decisions - "just how much detail?", "just how long?", (worse) "how much mathematical background should we assume, in our readers?", and (worst) "how willing will our readers be, to slog through serious mathematics?".

(I'm assuming you've already searched for math bloggers, and similar "labor of love" coverage of the topic.)