Originally Posted by BWT
Cascasde, I am having a hard time understanding this. When I put in balls, I just put them in until no more will fit on the race. In other words, every ball I put in touches the race. Usually, there is a "smidgeon" of space between a couple of the balls when I am done. Does this mean I am doing n-1 right?
Sounds like you've got it. When you're at "n-1" then all the balls fit with a little space (but, not enough for another ball) left over. If you have "n" balls in the race, when you try to test fit the race, cup, and balls, they are not going to sit in a perfect circle. The circle of balls will have a kink in it and that's what's meant by "jumbled". As you start from one ball and keep adding them (one at a time), the first occurence where the balls jumble is when you've got "n".
And, hopefully, that sticks a fork in this thread ;-)