Basically title.
My basic physics knowledge says that the larger chips - near the top of a bag of chips - are not “stable”, they are kinda precariously balanced only at one or two points. But once the brittle chips break down, they tend to settle at the bottom because the crumbles are more “stable” there, and are at a lower state of potential energy.
Just my own theory, but would like to know what others think here.
Edit : Does this question not belong to this community ? I couldn’t explain the downvotes…
It’s known as the ‘Brazil nut effect’, technically apparently Granular Convection: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granular_convection It’s apparently not fully explained, but theories suggest things like buoyancy, or that larger particles are blocked from sinking by smaller particles, which on the other hand can slip below the larger ones.