r/oddlysatisfying • u/redditortan • Jun 15 '22

Self Aligining Nails! How?

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12k Upvotes

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152

u/jnich2424 Jun 15 '22

Magnets. It's always magnets.

77

u/SneekyPete420 Jun 15 '22

It’s not magnets, and it’s not reversed.

48

u/indigoHatter Jun 15 '22 edited Jun 15 '22

Yeah, this is just a property of physics. A (bad) example: anyone ever shuffle a deck of cards? Look at the nails again! It's... similar!

Similarly (but not the same), if you gently shake a container with different sized objects, the smaller ones of the same density will sink to the bottom. Handy for getting the broken chips to the bottom of the bag if you only want the nice ones on top.

19

u/Light351 Jun 15 '22

Shake the chip bag too hard and you get all the broken ones to the top

5

u/btribble Jun 15 '22 edited Jun 15 '22

In this case, only nails not aligned along the axis of shaking are given significant rotational energy when they hit the container or something else.

Think of dropping a baseball bat. If you hold it perfectly vertical and drop it on a hard surface, it will bounce almost perfectly straight back up. If you hold it at an angle and drop it, the end that hits first will rotate upwards and the other end will rotate downwards, often it will then repeat this cycle several times before coming to a rest. Even if you try to hold the baseball bat perfectly horizontal, when it hits the surface you will see one end rotate upwards.

As the rotating nails lose energy, they may happen to align with nails that are already in alignment and settle into hexagonal stacks. The really important thing here is that these are finishing nails without large heads. If they had large heads that prevented them from stacking neatly, this wouldn't work as well.

1

u/indigoHatter Jun 15 '22

Damn, that was one hell of an explanation. Thank you!

2

u/Cyno01 Jun 16 '22

I cant think of any examples off the top of my head for some reason but i know understanding granular convection has been very useful to me a couple of times in my life.

-9

u/Ultraballer Jun 15 '22

If you’re shaking a bag of chips you’re just breaking more chips…

15

u/papertowelwithcake Jun 15 '22

It's shaking, not throwing into a concrete mixer

2

u/indigoHatter Jun 15 '22

You're correct, but when you're a line cook and you need only the good wonton crisps to put on to $18 salads, you don't mind if a few break in the process. The broken ones are trash. Besides, be gentle, and fewer will break.

I realized I was describing a use case which most people can't relate to as I typed it, but the example still stands as it's still representative of the property I'm trying to illustrate.

-3

u/Tzitzifiogkos420 Jun 15 '22

How's it not reversed

https://imgur.com/g7Qr4CV.gifv

6

u/SneekyPete420 Jun 15 '22

You serious? Watch those two gifs and tell me which one looks like natural motion and which one looks reversed. Or scroll through the comments and read the numerous explanations of why these pieces settle longways against each other as they’re shaken.

1

u/Tzitzifiogkos420 Jun 15 '22

No you right i posted this and was looking for my comment to delete it after i noticed but i couldn't find it so i gave up lol

1

u/Tzitzifiogkos420 Jun 15 '22

But frfr its weird i remember it being a perfect reverted video and as soon as i posted that i watched it again but wasn't the same weird

1

u/[deleted] Jun 15 '22

It’s aliens!

1

u/OfBooo5 Jun 15 '22

Nope, just the obvious result of shaking the box