X-ray CT scans reveal that jostling a box of mixed nuts nudges oblong Brazil nuts to point more vertically, allowing the bulky nuts to rest on top as smaller ones sink to the bottom, Maria Temming ...

First there was the “Brazil nut effect”, then the “reverse Brazil nut effect” – and now physicists in the UK have cracked the “water-enhanced Brazil nut effect”. For those of you not familiar with ...

You may not have heard of it, but you’ve probably seen the “brazil nut effect” in action—it’s the name for the phenomenon that brings larger nuts or cereal chunks to the top of a container, leaving ...

Scientists have for the first time captured the complex dynamics of particle movement in granular materials, helping to explain why mixed nuts often see the larger Brazil nuts gather at the top. The ...

Open a can of mixed nuts, and chances are you’ll find a bunch of Brazil nuts topping the heap—whether that’s a good or bad thing depends on how you feel about Brazil nuts. It’s such a common ...

Muesli lovers have long pondered why the heavier (and tastier) components of their breakfast regularly appear at the top of the packet, a baffling question often referred to in scientific circles as ...

Geophysicists have found that granular segregation helps explain the tendency of riverbeds to be lined by, or 'armored' with, a layer of relatively larger particles. Pop the top off a can of mixed ...

In this column I'll discuss the Brazil Nut Effect. This notion of physical motion predicts that when a vessel containing different-sized objects (like, say, a jar of mixed nuts) is shaken, the smaller ...

April 19 (UPI) --If you're not a fan of Brazil nuts, the initial handful from a bag of mixed nuts can be frustrating. While it may not be a consolation to frustrated snackers, scientists have finally ...