Scientists are studying M&Ms and finding that they can pack a lot more tightly in a bowl than spheres of a comperable volume.
For both actual and simulated ellipsoids, Torquato and his colleagues now find that random packings fill as much as 73.5 percent of the space, just a smidgeon less than hand-stacked spheres do.
Why is random packing denser for ellipsoids than for spheres? The team proposes that the asymmetric ellipsoids can tip and rotate in ways that spheres can’t, so an ellipsoid nestles close to more neighbors than a sphere does. Indeed, the team finds that as many as 11 neighbors touch an ellipsoid, whereas each tight-packed sphere typically has only 6 adjacent neighbors.
That, in turn, could lead to advances in materials science, more tightly packing stuff of a given volume together.
Of course, keeping things in perspective,
For such experiments, Torquato says, M&Ms make “great” test objects because they’re inexpensive and uniform in size and shape. What’s more, he adds, “you can eat the experiment afterwards.”
Which could be a problem. When they determined that the M&Ms fit into a tigher space, did they go back and count them again?
(via BoingBoing)