This page explains the stacking of cannonballs and its relevance to metallic crystal structures. It highlights how pyramidal arrangements mirror the close-packed configurations of atoms in metals, emp...This page explains the stacking of cannonballs and its relevance to metallic crystal structures. It highlights how pyramidal arrangements mirror the close-packed configurations of atoms in metals, emphasizing body-centered cubic (bcc) and face-centered cubic (fcc) structures. The bcc structure has a coordination number of 8, while fcc and hexagonal close-packed (hcp) structures have a coordination number of 12, showcasing their efficient packing with minimal empty space.
Another more common structure is called body-centered cubic or bcc, in which there is an atom on each corner and in the center of the cubic unit cell, so that each atom has 8 neighbors. Notice that ea...Another more common structure is called body-centered cubic or bcc, in which there is an atom on each corner and in the center of the cubic unit cell, so that each atom has 8 neighbors. Notice that each corner of the unit cell actually has 1/8 of an atom. (If there were a whole atom on each corner, then we'd get the wrong structure when we stack the unit cells.)
