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Is there a reference about determining the minimum radius of a circle that would cover n circles of radius 1 that are in a square packing configuration ( see Wolfram's MathWorld packing packing description)?

This is a different problem than the "best known packing of equal circles in a circle", though for n=1, 2, and 4 it would have the same result.

For a hexagonal packing configuration, n=1, 2, 3, 7, would have the same result as "best know packing of equal circles in a circle". Believe 6 also does, but would actually cover 7.

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    For circles packing in square, it is solved problem. The formulas are here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circle_packing_in_a_square and here http://hydra.nat.uni-magdeburg.de/packing/csq/csq.html (there is a huge PDF there also to download)2012-12-21
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    Nasser: Not interested in circles fitting in a square. Interested in covering by a circle of n circles that are square packed. See diagram for what constitutes "square packing of circles". Klett: You are right it -- question probably should have gone there. Thought I was on that site until after I hit send. My apologies.2012-12-21

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