Chemistry · Ch 6 — Solid State
Linear Arrangement of Spheres in One Direction
Linear Arrangement of Spheres in One Direction
In any one specific direction, there is only a single possible way to arrange identical spheres: a simple touching row, with each sphere in contact with exactly two neighbouring spheres, one on either side. This one-dimensional row is the starting building block for every close-packed arrangement that follows -- two-dimensional layers are built by repeating this row, an …
What this figure shows. A single horizontal row of eight touching green spheres with one sphere near the middle coloured pink to mark a reference sphere, each sphere touching its immediate left and right neighbour. This one-directional row is the simplest possible packing unit in the whole unit -- there is only one geometrically distinct way to line up identical touching spheres along a single direction -- and it is exactly this row, repeated sideways into a second dimension, that builds the AAA-type and ABAB-type two-dimensi …