> To be honest, this isn't particularly odd, as the experiment removed the component of the agitation that would tend to displace the cubes vertically, which is

> To be honest, this isn't particularly odd, as the experiment removed the component of the agitation that would tend to displace the cubes vertically, which is the only dimension with an asymmetric force that would tend to increase the packing factor if undisturbed (gravity). The consequences here are still interesting with respect to object shape. Why do certain shapes easily reach optimal packings under perturbations like this? Will mono-disperse spheres reach their tightest theoretical packing under such a perturbation? Probably not. Ellipsoids? Probably. Tetrahedra? No idea. Anecdotally, I've heard this is why most candies are ellipsoidal and not spherical. Ellipsoids naturally gravitate to tighter packings and are thus more efficient to ship. Maybe we can now get cube-shaped chocolate candies.