I'm not entirely clear on the maths, but it seems that, if the circles are identical, by using hexagonal packing you can cover a maximum of about 0.9069 of the area-that is, a little less than a tenth of the area available is unplanted .-contribs)
42.
The guidelines require biotech companies to : _ Keep an unplanted perimeter of 50 feet ( 15 meters ) around the medicine crop . _ Plant the crop one mile ( 0.6 kilometer ) away from food crops to ensure they won't come in contact with each other . _ Dedicate farm equipment for cultivating, maintaining and harvesting pharmaceutical crops, and do not use the same equipment on food crops.
