Pool of Skittles

[Kaylia]

Argument over skittles is serious business

1. A pool full of skittles is not a solid. It behaves like a fluid in that it takes the shape of the container it is in, and can be APPROXIMATED to use fluid dynamics, with the understanding that it is composed of larger particles.

You start your post by saying "everything you said is wrong", then proceed by considering solid particles as a liquid

Definition of fluid:
A fluid is defined as a substance that continually deforms (flows) under an applied shear stress regardless of how small is the applied stress. All liquids and all gases are fluids. Fluids are a subset of the phases of matter and include liquids, gases, plasmas and, to some extent, plastic solids.

None of this apply to skittles. You would have to push "plastic solid" definition a lot to consider skittles as a fluids, and there is other mechanics physics property that describe this situation much better.

Definition: not resisting deformation, or resisting it only lightly (viscosity), and
Skittles WILL resist deformation a lot like any solid matter. Their sugar coating will eventually break, but it still wont be liquid, just a solid with larger elasticity.

3. The last part is so incorrect I dont even know where to begin. It has already been stated that unless the skittles have no freedom of movement, it will not be a linear compression force and not that simple of a system. You will die in your pool of quicksand skittles.

You might as well begin somewhere because what you said is not an argument. Make me a simple drawing (or explanation) that show how skittlse have freedom of movement. I can easily demonstrate otherwise with a simple drawing showing force on other sperical object above him and on the side (blue arrow in my pictures)

[Tsunade]

I can't help it... I must make a post.

Skittles WILL resist deformation a lot like any solid matter. Their sugar coating will eventually break, but it still wont be liquid, just a solid with larger elasticity.

Each skittle will resist deformation, like any other solid, but what makes the overall *pool* of skittles act like a fluid is the fact that the skittles can move around. So as you push down on the skittles, they will just move out of the way before they actually get crushed. Now if the skittles were packed extreamly tightly, then they might compress a bit rather than move like a fluid.

Put it this way. Think about sticking your hand into a bucket of water. Will you compress the water, or does the water level just rise?
Now repeat, but with skittles. Will you be able to compress all the skittles, or will they just let your hand sink in?

Now that I think about it, I think you can walk across the skittles, if it were a bucket. Perhaps a pool would allow for enough movement that you sink. In any case, if you *tried* you can probably sink, if you wiggle yourself into the skittles of death!

[Kaylia]

Put it this way. Think about sticking your hand into a bucket of water. Will you compress the water, or does the water level just rise?
Now repeat, but with skittles. Will you be able to compress all the skittles, or will they just let your hand sink in?

But its not water lol. Think about sticking your hand in a bunch of glass marbles, you wont reach the bottom, you might not even reach something 2 inches deep unless you are digging (do an effort to move them out of the way).

I know it's another extreme, but skittles are a lot closer to marble than water, even if they compress more and are lighter.

I will ask you as well, how do you think skittles can move inside the pool. Can you draw me a picture on a small scale that show how skittles are free to move around? Even 1 feet deep

[Deejay]

I stuck my hand in a bowl of skittles once. It was kinda hard to press down, I imagine walking across it would be pretty easy.

[Neosutra]

Put it this way. Think about sticking your hand into a bucket of water. Will you compress the water, or does the water level just rise?
Now repeat, but with skittles. Will you be able to compress all the skittles, or will they just let your hand sink in?

But its not water lol. Think about sticking your hand in a bunch of glass marbles, you wont reach the bottom, you might not even reach something 2 inches deep unless you are digging (do an effort to move them out of the way).

I know it's another extreme, but skittles are a lot closer to marble than water, even if they compress more and are lighter.

I will ask you as well, how do you think skittles can move inside the pool. Can you draw me a picture on a small scale that show how skittles are free to move around? Even 1 feet deep

You want me to do a clip art picture to express to you an approximation of fluid dynamics on a system of smaller particles? Clip art doesnt prove anything as shown in the other "examples" in this thread. I have wasted enough time in a thread on skittles arguing with you about some really basic concepts here, so beleive what you like. But I suggest you go back to college before you make so bold (and incorrect) statements as you have made here. The skittles have a freedom of movement in that if a force is applied to the system, the force will push the skittles out from where you apply it, the skittle on skittle interaction is the "freedom of movement" throught the system. So unless each skittle is unable to move, there will not be a linear compression ratio. Any system of smaller base particles that satisfy these criteria can be approximated using fluid mechanics. Why dont you draw me some clip are to show me you disagree.

[Freight]

You 100% will be able to walk on the pool of skittles. No sinking will be involved, besides in the 3-5" range. A fat ass pool of skittles won't move that much from 1 person slowly stepping out onto them to walk from one side to the other.

[RustyMetal]

why bother swimming in a pool of skittles when you could be eating them bitches

[Kaliden]

why bother swimming in a pool of skittles when you could be eating them bitches

I concur, lets get some skittles.

[SephYuyX]

M&Ms > Skittles

[Kaylia]

You want me to do a clip art picture to express to you an approximation of fluid dynamics on a system of smaller particles? Clip art doesnt prove anything as shown in the other "examples" in this thread. I have wasted enough time in a thread on skittles arguing with you about some really basic concepts here, so beleive what you like. But I suggest you go back to college before you make so bold (and incorrect) statements as you have made here. The skittles have a freedom of movement in that if a force is applied to the system, the force will push the skittles out from where you apply it, the skittle on skittle interaction is the "freedom of movement" throught the system. So unless each skittle is unable to move, there will not be a linear compression ratio. Any system of smaller base particles that satisfy these criteria can be approximated using fluid mechanics. Why dont you draw me some clip are to show me you disagree.

I'm currently doing a major in physics, so I do have some base despite what you might think. You are the one who is talking out of your ass.


I will ask you this question one last time. If you fill a pool with 1cm spherical rock, are you going to be able to walk on it, or you will sink? If you answer yes to that, you are retarded. If you answer "no", you're on the right track. Just apply the same concept to skittles.

Can you have a mountain of sand, of skittles? Or those are considered as fluild and will spread everywhere?


Skittles wont move, because gravity will make them sit right on top of each other. To move, they need space and they dont have any. Since you couldnt demonstrate how a skittle would have "freedom of movement" and simply attacked me, I will make a picture for retarded people like you.


Here is what happen when you drop skittles in the pool:

http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/303/skittle3bz0.jpg
[edit]
The gravitational force directed toward the red skittle will cancel each other in X (both top left and top right skittle are pushing in opposite direction, but add up in Y). If you repeat this until you reach the top, you will come to the conclusion that weight on your skittle is equal to every skittles above it multiplied by cos(angle), where the angle varies with the shape of skittle (45degree for sphere).

The force exerced on top left skittles is equal to F12 = Ftot sin*(theta) , and Y componant Ftot sin*(theta) need to overcome the weigth

This model works in a frictionless skittle pools. If you had no wall, it would be a little different, but friction vs force needed to accelerate (move) something would compensate, and situation would be similar

[Kaliden]

M&Ms > Skittles

Speaking of which, whatever happened to those crispy M&Ms?

[Starless]

M&Ms > Skittles

Speaking of which, whatever happened to those crispy M&Ms?

I can still find em on a rare occasion.

[Neosutra]

I'm currently doing a major in physics, so I do have some base despite what you might think. You are the one who is talking out of your ass.

As opposed to your "doing a major in physics", I actually HAVE a major in physics, in addition with a graduate degree in the field, so I would think twice before spouting your sophmoric views on the subject as a resident expert. From someone who has taken the same classes and you and MANY more, I am telling you your wrong.

I will ask you this question one last time. If you fill a pool with 1cm spherical rock, are you going to be able to walk on it, or you will sink? If you answer yes to that, you are retarded. If you answer "no", you're on the right track. Just apply the same concept to skittles.


Can you have a mountain of sand, of skittles? Or those are considered as fluild and will spread everywhere?


Skittles wont move, because gravity will make them sit right on top of each other. To move, they need space and they dont have any. Since you couldnt demonstrate how a skittle would have "freedom of movement" and simply attacked me, I will make a picture for retarded people like you.

The force of you pushing down on the skittles would cause them to displace outward and upward (while the skittles are confined in their movement in the downward and horizontal direction by the sides and bottom of the pool, there is no lid on the pool to confine them vertically, thus they push up and outward as you apply a force on the total system.

The force of gravity on a skittle will not overcome the force of a human being standing in the middle of them.. That is orders of magnitude of difference.

The comparison with spherical 1cm balls isnt quite correct either, as the rocks would not be as easy to compress and would be less fluid (more viscous) based on the density of the substance (remember above when I talked about the individual force from skittle to skittle and resistivity between them? Well in the case of rocks or sand, the force from grain to grain isnt dulled as much by the elasticity of each peice, unlike skittles which are very elastic.

I am not even going to address your clip art, as it I felt less intelligent just looking at it.

The effects of this pool would be as I stated before, you would sink a few feet in immediatly, then slowly be pulled down as you struggled to get out. I simply tried to help you rationalize this through fluid mechanics approximations. This pool of skittles is nothing more then a pool of sugary quicksand. I suggest you take more notes in your classes and dont be in such a hurry to broadcast your "doing a degree in physics" as validation for your claims when all it does is display your obvious naivity for how much you dont know yet (and after you finish your undergrad you will realize just how much you dont know).

Anyone care to price check how much 500 gallons of skittles would cost?

[evilbau]

Anyone care to price check how much 500 gallons of skittles would cost?

anyone got the density of skittles? I need a weight > volume conversion

i did a quick search for bulk candy and best i saw was 36 lbs for $80 (+ crazy shipping costs)

or maybe 40.5 lbs for $98 http://www.metrocandy.com/SKITTLES-40-LB-CASE

[Priran]

I am telling you your wrong.

lol'd

The comparison with spherical 1cm balls isnt quite correct either, as the rocks would not be as easy to compress and would be less fluid (more viscous) based on the density of the substance (remember above when I talked about the individual force from skittle to skittle and resistivity between them? Well in the case of rocks or sand, the force from grain to grain isnt dulled as much by the elasticity of each peice, unlike skittles which are very elastic.

Skittles aren't really what I'd consider elastic. If one deforms at all, the shell breaks and the gelatin-sugar-whatever inside is squished.

The effects of this pool would be as I stated before, you would sink a few feet in immediatly, then slowly be pulled down as you struggled to get out. I simply tried to help you rationalize this through fluid mechanics approximations. This pool of skittles is nothing more then a pool of sugary quicksand.

Quicksand is colloidal mixture of sand and water. It's fluid, and if you put it on a flat surface it would spread out until its surface tension stopped it.

Skittles are granular. I have here, IN MY HAND, some Skittles, and when I pile them up, they form a(n extremely shallow) cone. When I pile them too steeply, the pile collapses. This is called angle of repose, a property of granular substances.

Struggling in quicksand gets you pulled in deeper because the viscosity of quicksand changes. When you apply pressure, the sand precipitates out of the water and you can't move. At rest, a pool of skittles would be solid. When you moved the skittles around, they would behave like a fluid. When you apply pressure to them, they would solidify again. What this means is that it wouldn't be hard to climb out of or move around in skittles, at all.

[Tricen]

http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/2573/29512991jh5.gif
Winrar.

[Daemien]

it would be almost exactly the same as walking across pea gravel in a playground. do you sink to the bottom of that? i didn't think so

[Fhqwghads]

Will somebody make a vat of goddamn skittles already and jump in to end this most ridiculous thread?

[Kaylia]

As opposed to your "doing a major in physics", I actually HAVE a major in physics, in addition with a graduate degree in the field, so I would think twice before spouting your sophmoric views on the subject as a resident expert. From someone who has taken the same classes and you and MANY more, I am telling you your wrong.

I suppose you could give me the Langragian of a double pendulum with 2 massless spring then? Just want to test how much bullshit you are saying. I just want L(T,V). Don't need to solve everything, just tell me how you would proceed

Anyway, for someone with a major in physics, you should be able to models what is happening and what force would push skittle up as you drown in. However, you failled to do anything of the sort using newton physics on particles.

The force of you pushing down on the skittles would cause them to displace outward and upward (while the skittles are confined in their movement in the downward and horizontal direction by the sides and bottom of the pool, there is no lid on the pool to confine them vertically, thus they push up and outward as you apply a force on the total system.

Model a pool of ellipsoide, apply any force toward the bottom and tell me what happen. Half of the weight goes toward bottom, half of it goes toward surface. The deeper you are in, the large the surface you are trying to raise is, and the heavier it get. It wont takes long before you lift half of your weight in skittles, a few inches and that's it. Now, add compression to that, add energy lost to friction and you lift skittles even less.


Keep insulting me if you want, I don't care. You are the one who is failing badly at simple physics.

[evilbau]

couldn't someone model this in a CAD program? seems like it would be easy enough to do.