The original article (Thompson, R.B. 1998. Designing a baseball cover. College Mathematics Journal 29(January):48) was pretty good. Unfortunately, it does not appear to be online anymore, since the widely referenced mathsoft site is gone. The author apparently works for the U. of Arizona, but he doesn't have it online either. Perhaps someone on this list can get Dr. Thompson to post it on his web site? At 11:01 AM 7/4/03 -0400, Bernie Cosell wrote:

On 4 Jul 2003 at 7:25, Henry Baker wrote:

...

I hope that you know enough about baseball to appreciate the elegance of the baseball's seam:

http://www.sciencenews.org/sn_arc98/4_11_98/mathland.htm

What property of the 'seam' problem for the baseball precludes just an equator for the seam as a possible solution? Is there some "minimization of necessary stretch" or other criterion that drives the more complicated shape?

/Bernie\

-- Bernie Cosell Fantasy Farm Fibers mailto:bernie@fantasyfarm.com Pearisburg, VA --> Too many people, too few sheep <--