SCIENCE BEHIND DIWALI MIXTURE

Deepavali mixture is that delicious snack we can eat all day, all year

Sweet shops store them in big glass jars that everyone can see and get attracted to

When the shopkeeper opens the lid, we often see lots of big cashews and almonds on top

But when we go home and stir the half kg we bought, we find that there are not too many of those cashews and almonds

We often feel the shopkeeper had cheated us by enticing us with those nuts on top

Scientists are now saying that this was not the shopkeeper’s fault but a natural phenomenon

We would imagine that in our Deepavali mixture the bigger nuts would go to the bottom and the small boondi would come on top naturally

A phenomenon called Brazil nut effect makes the large nuts migrate towards the top everytime the mixture is shaken

They have observed this with sophisticated X-ray CT scans and 3D timelapse imagery

The surface of asteroids in space has large boulders due to the same effect

On river beds, large pebbles are on top whereas the smaller ones are at bottom. This helps prevent erosion too

So, it’s just nature making us buy more Deepavali mixture and eating it by putting those delicious cashews and almonds on top