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Given N amount of uniform circles of radius R, how do I find the radius of the smallest enclosing circle around the uniform circles?

user196399
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  • By "uniform circle" do you mean these circles are in circular motion around a center and these circles are all R from the center? Or that all of these circles are in motion of different distances but all the uniform circles are radius R? Or something else? – fleablood Oct 09 '15 at 17:31
  • These circles all have the same radius. They can be arranged in any pattern. – user196399 Oct 09 '15 at 17:45

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I assume this is in the plane. You want to take the minimum enclosing circle of the centres of your $N$ circles and add $R$ to its radius. Finding the minimum enclosing circle is not simple, but according to that Wikipedia page it can be done in time linear in $N$.

Robert Israel
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