Patterns in the sand

Paul Umbanhowar ()
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Paul Umbanhowar: University of Pennsylvania, David Rittenhouse Laboratory

Nature, 1997, vol. 389, issue 6651, 541-542

Abstract: When shaken, sand and other granular materials can form into a variety of patterns — squares, stripes and hexagons, for instance — depending on a variety of factors. The dynamics of this behaviour are poorly understood, but a new and quite simple model has been formulated that reproduces the patterns. Moreover it predicts that a particular arrangement, composed of isosceles triangles and not yet seen in experiments, should exist under certain circumstances.

Date: 1997
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DOI: 10.1038/39174

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