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A comment on Mathematicians find way to put 7 cylinders in contact without using their ends.

Re:Mathematicians find way to put 7 cylinders in contact wit... by ebol4 on Saturday April 05, 2014 @03:12PM (#7538082)
Don't they just have to not be parallel?
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Re:Mathematicians find way to put 7 cylinders in contact wit... by Retric on Saturday April 05, 2014 @03:15PM (#7538095)
No, your thinking 2D lines, but this is 3D space. It's easy to arrange things so they all miss each other and not have them be parallel. The goal is to have them touch, but not intersect.
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Re:Mathematicians find way to put 7 cylinders in contact wit... by saalweachter on Saturday April 05, 2014 @03:35PM (#7538158)
In three dimensions, non-parallel lines do not necessarily intersect.
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Re:Mathematicians find way to put 7 cylinders in contact wit... by lcnmrn on Saturday April 05, 2014 @04:15PM (#7538285)
Yes, if the radius is infinite. But I think this is not the case.
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Re:Mathematicians find way to put 7 cylinders in contact wit... by anon4 on Saturday April 05, 2014 @03:18PM (#7538103)
Nah, not quite. You want every cylinder touching all 6 other cylinders and not going through them.
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