Circle packing in a circle


Circle packing in a circle is a two-dimensional packing problem with the objective of packing unit circles into the smallest possible larger circle.

Table of solutions, 1 ≤ ''n'' ≤ 20

If more than one optimal solution exists, all are shown.
Enclosing circle radius
Density
OptimalityLayout of the
circles
111.0Trivially optimal.
220.5Trivially optimal.
32.155...

0.6466...Trivially optimal.
42.414...

0.6864...Trivially optimal.
52.701...

0.6854...Proved optimal by Graham
630.6666...Proved optimal by Graham
730.7777...Trivially optimal.
83.304...

0.7328...Proved optimal by Pirl
93.613...

0.6895...Proved optimal by Pirl
103.813...0.6878...Proved optimal by Pirl
113.923...

0.7148...Proved optimal by Melissen
124.029...0.7392...Proved optimal by Fodor
134.236...

0.7245...Proved optimal by Fodor
144.328...0.7474...Proved optimal by Ekanayake and LaFountain
.
154.521...

0.7339...Conjectured optimal by Pirl
.
164.615...0.7512...Conjectured optimal by Goldberg
.
174.792...0.7403...Conjectured optimal by Reis
.
184.863...

0.7609...Conjectured optimal by Pirl,
with additional arrangements by Graham, Lubachevsky, Nurmela, and Östergård.
194.863...

0.8032...Proved optimal by Fodor
205.122...0.7623...Conjectured optimal by Goldberg.

Special cases

Only 26 optimal packings are thought to be rigid. Numbers in bold are prime:
  • Proven for n = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 19
  • Conjectured for n = 15, 16, 17, 18, 22, 23, 27, 30, 31, 33, 37, 61, 91
Of these, solutions for n = 2, 3, 4, 7, 19, and 37 achieve a packing density greater than any smaller number > 1.