Basically title.
My basic physics knowledge says that the larger chips - near the top of a bag of chips - are not “stable”, they are kinda precariously balanced only at one or two points. But once the brittle chips break down, they tend to settle at the bottom because the crumbles are more “stable” there, and are at a lower state of potential energy.
Just my own theory, but would like to know what others think here.
Edit : Does this question not belong to this community ? I couldn’t explain the downvotes…
Little ones can slip through the cracks in the big ones, innit
The Brazil Nut Effect is what you are observing also known as Granular Convection.
i’ve seen an explanation of ‘avalanche vs skier’ physics by comparing it to a box of cereal. basically the smaller pieces slip through gaps between bigger ones and end up at the bottom.
that’s why inflatable backpacks got invented. to make the skier as big as possible to avoid getting buried.
I tend to think about it as density. Smaller chunks can be more tightly packed together, and are therfore more dense. As long as there is a way for the stuff to flow (i.e. shaking the bag), gravity will pull denser stuff to the bottom.
Same thing happens if you put large and small pebbles in a jar and agitate it. The small ones migrate downwards to fill in the gaps between the big ones. Even if the big ones move to the bottom, they will end up propping each other up, preventing the other large ones from falling further, and creating gaps for the small ones to fall into.
