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Ben McKay
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Rolling one surface on another without slipping binds the velocity of the rolling surface and its angular velocity, giving a rank 2 subbundle in the tangent bundle of the 5-dimensional space of tangential positionings of the 2 surfaces in space. This subbundle, when you roll one sphere on another, has an 8 dimensional symmetry group, unless one sphere has exactly one third the radius of the other sphere, in which case the subbundle is preserved by a 14 dimensional group of diffeomorphisms of the 5-dimensional manifold: the split real form of the simple Lie group $G_2$.

Ben McKay
  • 26.3k
  • 7
  • 67
  • 102