August 8, 1946

Dr. William H. Eberhardt

Department of Chemistry

Georgia School of Technology

Atlanta, Georgia

Dear Bill:

I have written again to Benton. Virginia might turn out to be a very good place for you.

I am sure that there is nothing new in the theorem that there are n+1 points equidistant from every other point in space of n dimensions. This hypersolid is called a si[m]plex in n dimensional space. Whether your proof is new or not I do not know. Some people have, of course, devoted a great deal of time to this subject.

I think that this property of the tetrahedron is, of course, related to the stability of the alpha particle and similar aggregates. I do not see how the exclusion principle comes in. If you have some idea about the restatement of the exclusion principle which you would care to communicate to me, please send it on.

I am working very hard now on the structure of metals and intermetallic compounds, and getting very interesting results.

Sincerely yours,

Linus Pauling

LP:per