Simulated intrusive contacts. (A and B) 3D renderings of simulated contact between two spheres (128 voxel diameter) with a colorimetric distance scale indicating the distance of sphere #1 from sphere #2, (A) when both structures are simple spheres, or (B) when sphere #2 intrudes into Sphere #1. (C and D) Surface area histograms depicting the surface area percentage of sphere #1 that is located within the indicated distances of sphere #2, (C) when both structures are simple spheres, or (D) when sphere #2 intrudes into sphere #1 (arrowhead in D indicates the anomalous peak discovered in Fig. 6). (E) Illustrative description of “Buffon’s Needle Problem” with corresponding equations, which describe the probability of a randomly distributed needle of known length (“L”) overlapping a line if those lines are regularly spaced by a known distance (d). Histogram data in C and D are surface area percentages binned into five voxel distance brackets relative to sphere #2. Scale bars in A and B, 10 voxels.