🚀 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.
>
>--

I recall a demonstration where a container of rice is picked up by plunging
a knife into it as if to stab it.  It doesn't work until the rice is killed
(!) by several stabs which establish close packing in the rice.

David Bailey                              !  Faculty of Science &
Technology,
University of Western Sydney, Nepean            !  P.O. Box 10, KINGSWOOD  2747
Phone (047) 360 429  Fax (047) 360 713    !  Australia