Newsgroups: sci.math
From: hoey@AIC.NRL.Navy.Mil (Dan Hoey)
Date: Tue, 19 Apr 1994 21:21:51 GMT
Subject: Wu-Yi Hsiang's paper on Kepler's sphere-packing problem

In 1990, Wu-Yi Hsiang announced a proof of Kepler's conjecture that
the densest packing of spheres in three dimensions is achieved by the
known hexagonal packings.

In the Spring, 1994 issue of _Mathematical Intelligencer_, there is a
letter from J.H. Conway, T.C. Hales, D.J. Muder, and N.J.A. Sloane
(all of them sphere-packing researchers) stating their opinion that
Hsiang's work does not constitute a proof of the conjecture.  Hales
will present a fuller exposition of the objections in the next issue
of the _Intelligencer_.  They note that Hsiang's paper will be
published soon in _International Journal of Mathematics_.

I hesitate to write of this in sci.math, since the local toxic waste
will presumably respond to the mention of one of the mathematicians on
his enemies list.  I encourage all readers to ignore the expected
Ludifoggery.  Wrestling with a pig only widens its sty.

Dan Hoey
Hoey@AIC.NRL.Navy.Mil