🚀 go-pugleaf

>
> It had something to do with the pressure on the walls of the vessel
> which contains the corn flakes.  An analogy (very rough) would
> be a sand pile or a pile of grain at a storage facility.  As the grains
> on top press down, the grains below are not forced straight down, but
> transfer some of the force to the side.  This way, friction with the
> sides of the container takes up some of the total weight and the
> grains on the bottom don't 'feel' all the weight of the total
> of the grains above them.  A simple demonstration would be to
> pack a glass column, say 1" diameter and a foot or two long, with
> sand and 'seal' the bottom with toilet tissue.  Obviously, the tissue
> is not strong enough to hold all that weight, but it will hold the sand
> in the tube.  You would probably need to experiment with tube diameters
> and tissue brands to get a combination that works.
>
This demo is described in Sutton's Demonstrations in Physics, 1938.

--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Van E. Neie                                      ven@physics.purdue.edu
Purdue University
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------