Some Settling May Occur: Granular Compaction

After opening a new box of cereal, you see half the cereal is missing. Despite your surprise, the box is actually full. During shipping, the contents settled—resulting in the appearance of a half full box. This effect can be attributed to granular compaction. Our approach to studying compaction includes a well-controlled system containing many spherical masses, which are constrained to move in a long tube. Starting with masses in a loose configuration, the tube is shaken vertically and the masses settle into a compact alignment. To refine the experimental approach, different system loosening techniques and density measuring methods are explored