In a hexaonal system system of cycstals, a frequently encountered arrangement of atoms is described as a hexagonal prism. Here, the top and bottom of the cell are refular hexagons, and three atoms are sandwiched in between them. A space-cilling model of this structure, called hexagonal close-paked is constituted of a sphere on a flat surface surrounded in the same plane by six identical spheres as closely as possible. Three spherres are then placed overt the first layer so that they toych each other and represent the second layer so that they toych each other and present the second layer. Each one of the three spheres touches three spheres of the bottom layer. Finally, the second layer is convered with a third layer identical to the bottom layer in relative position. Assume the radius of every sphere to be `r`.
The empty space in this hcp unit cell is
A. 4
B. 6
C. 12
D. 17
