Stacking Oranges - Is there a link ?

Always when I visit a market place, I look at the impressive piles of fruit, as it is so beautifully stacked. This however lead to some speculation about stacking.
How about stacking the round (ball shaped fruit) in a cube like fashion, wouldn't that be effective ?
Well it isn't
Math scientists have now proven that the most effective stacking of round objects is exactly the one used by the fruit shops.
The triangular pyramid.


Only 52% of the space is used in a square stack	As much as 74% is used in the pyramid shaped stack

Why then do I mention this?.
Well the cube which could appear effective, is the way we see our SOMA puzzle,
But the effective pyramid is exactly the way Piet Hein constructed his Pyramystery puzzle. (See Newsletter 991014.)
So as you see, Piet gave us both stacking methods through his fameous puzzles.

Submitted by Thorleif Bundgaard <thorleif@fam-bundgaard.dk>

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