The Octave puzzle

Copyright 2007 by Bill Gosper (rwg@osots.com)

Twelve rather well-tempered pieces (whose diameters span an almost perfect octave) will probably leave you rather ill tempered.  All twelve fit so comfortably in the big ovoid that they spill out if you tip it over.  On 26 Mar 2007, Cheny Xu (as usual) found an unintended solution, forcing me to reveal the following clue/restriction (suspected by many):  In the correct solution, all the voids are tricuspid (three-pointed). When you despair of finding any solution whatever, let a little kid replace the pieces in their proper holes.  They love that.

http://gosper.org/new/, ...org/Huddle.RTF, ...org/octav2.rtf, ...org/7^3.rtf
www.tweedledum.com/rwg/idents.htm