Manifest Destiny and colonialism versus spheres of influence
Four perfectly spherical croquet balls are stacked as shown.
Three croquet balls are supporting the fourth ball.
All four balls are congruent; each has a volume of 21 cubic inches.
The four balls will be placed within a containment sphere.
The containment sphere is of negligible thickness.
Find the volume V of the smallest possible containment sphere.
First correct answer arriving at [email protected] wins a gift card worth lots of ice cream at Tucker’s Ice Cream of Alameda.
Last week’s winner was Paul Engstrom with A = 2π2 units.
Jeff Smith is a former Math teacher and a retired US Navy Lieutenant Commander. Reach him at [email protected].
