Have you ever wondered why the largest crisps are at the top of a freshly opened bag and the smallest ones at the bottom?

Why can you build a sandcastle on the beach but not in the Sahara?

Those two questions are related to the behaviour of particles.

They are everywhere in our daily lives, no matter if we look at snacks like smarties or rocks in nature.

At the two-day Science is Wonnderful festival in Brussels last week, ESRs Roxana and Max ran an interactive booth, exploring the physics of granular matter to help primary school children answer these questions. Whilst conducting experiments on particles and enoying some cheeky snacks along the way, they inspired lots of young people to think about particles in everyday life.