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that the simplest fullerene molecule, C60, has a soccer-ball shape |
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whose shapes are made up of pentagons and hexagons that meet three at a time, in such a way that no two pentagons are adjacent |
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whereas, mathematically, the combinatorics of fullerenes is an application of Euler's formula |
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although other fullerenes, such as C80, have been made in the laboratory |
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while every fullerene contains exactly 12 pentagons with no limit to the number of hexagons it contains |