Space-Filling Polyhedron: Its Relation to Aggregates of Soap Bubbles, Plant Cells, and Metal Crystallites

Abstract

A fourteen-faced space-filling polyhedron which closely approximates the actual distribution of four-, five- and six-sided polygons found in packings of soap bubbles and biological cells is proposed as an alternative to the Kelvin tetrakaidecahedron as the ideal polyhedron for these packings. This polyhedron may also have relevance to crystallite morphologies and crystal structures.