{"id":5586,"date":"2004-02-17T08:23:57","date_gmt":"2004-02-17T15:23:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2004\/02\/17\/my-kind-of-science.html"},"modified":"2004-02-17T08:23:57","modified_gmt":"2004-02-17T15:23:57","slug":"my_kind_of_scie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/02\/17\/my_kind_of_scie.html","title":{"rendered":"My kind of science"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scientists are studying M&Ms<\/a> and finding that they can pack a lot more tightly in a bowl than spheres of a comperable volume.<\/p>\n

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.
\nWhy 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.<\/p>\n

That, in turn, could lead to advances in materials science, more tightly packing stuff of a given volume together.<\/p>\n

Of course, keeping things in perspective, <\/p>\n

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.”<\/p>\n

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?<\/i><\/p>\n

(via BoingBoing<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11724,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/02\/16\/the_friends_you_keep_ando.html","url_meta":{"origin":5586,"position":0},"title":"The friends you keep (and\/or potentially appoint)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 16-Feb-08 10:37am","format":false,"excerpt":"I've commented before that Mike Huckabee seems like an nice, entertaining guy. I've enjoyed his appearances on Colbert Report and hearing him interviews, and he'd be high on my list...","rel":"","context":"In "Crime & Punishment"","block_context":{"text":"Crime & Punishment","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/crime-punishment"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26555,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/21\/popular-quotations-i-have-known.html","url_meta":{"origin":5586,"position":1},"title":"Popular quotations I have known","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 21-Feb-12 9:10pm","format":false,"excerpt":"These are the ten most popular quotes (based on hit counts) from my WIST quotations site. \u00a0Why are they the most popular? \u00a0No idea. \u00a0But I thought they might be of interest. And were an epitaph to be my story, I\u2019d have a short one ready for my own. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Quotations (WIST)"","block_context":{"text":"Quotations (WIST)","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/wist"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/07\/14\/well_this_is_pr.html","url_meta":{"origin":5586,"position":2},"title":"Well, this is pretty scary","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 14-Jul-03 10:30am","format":false,"excerpt":"An excerpt from an essay (the original is much longer, and says much the same thing) on why the Constitution is incompatible with progressive ideals, written by a real, live...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9251,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/08\/01\/lover_when_im_w.html","url_meta":{"origin":5586,"position":3},"title":"Lover, when I’m with you …","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 1-Aug-06 2:25pm","format":false,"excerpt":"You scored as VI: The Lovers. This is a card symbolising couples, relationships and strong bonds. The love does not have to be physical, nor even called by that...","rel":"","context":"In "Personality Tests"","block_context":{"text":"Personality Tests","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/personal\/personality-tests"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":725,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/11\/20\/maybe_home_owne.html","url_meta":{"origin":5586,"position":4},"title":"Maybe Home Owner Associations aren’t such a bad idea","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 20-Nov-01 2:06pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Hate the idea that building codes and neighborhood covenants keep you from using your property as you like? Many Muscovites in this Christian Science Monitor story would disagree. Nina Dimshitz...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27855,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/10\/lovely-universe-ennit.html","url_meta":{"origin":5586,"position":5},"title":"Lovely universe, ennit?","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 10-May-12 3:49pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Lovely universe, ennit?Reshared post from +Philip PlaitSharp rings, icy sphere... and a looming Titanhttp:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/badastronomy\/2012\/05\/10\/ice-moon-ghost-moon\/I love this Cassini shot from Saturn. The rings cut across the image, and the tiny, icy, perfectly-sharp sphere of Enceladus is eye-catching... but then you see the dark, forbidding presence of Titan in the background. Haunting.[Credit:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5586\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}