Brazil nut effect

Have you ever noticed that in a bag of mixed nuts, the big Brazil nuts always end up at the top? This happens because of something called the Brazil nut effect.

Imagine you have a jar and you fill it with a mixture of different sized objects. When you shake the jar, the objects will move around and eventually settle into different layers. The larger objects will float to the top while the smaller objects will sink to the bottom.

The reason this happens is because of gravity. Gravity is the force that pulls things towards each other, like how the Earth pulls us towards it.

Now, when you have a mixture of objects, the bigger objects have more mass and therefore more gravitational pull. This means they are able to push aside the smaller objects and move to the top.

This is why the Brazil nuts always end up at the top of a bag of mixed nuts. They are the largest and heaviest nuts in the bag, so they have the most gravitational pull and are able to move to the top.

So, the next time you reach for a mixed nut snack, remember the Brazil nut effect and why those big nuts always seem to end up at the top!