We have a winner! At 4:05 a.m., I received the following from Ryan Phelan, who will get a free copy of Foundation ActionScript Animation 3.0: Making Things Move!
[kml_flashembed movie=“https://www.bit-101.com/2003/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/soddy_circles_1.swf” width=“600″ height=“600″ /]
As you can see, a Soddy Circle is one of the two circles which are tangent to the other three tangent circles. The inner Soddy Circle is between the three, and the outer one surrounds the three if possible, or lies off to the side if necessary.
Ryan beat out Jason Fistner by about 21 minutes, and Anselm Bradford came in less than an hour later. All three were awesome and as far as I can tell are technically accurate and well coded. Ryan was just first. I’d show the rest, but a Soddy Circle is a Soddy Circle is a Soddy Circle. 🙂
I think I might do a little contest like this on a regular basis, as long as my supply of books holds up.