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. 2008 Oct 1;3(10):e3309. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0003309

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Baumgartner et al.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.

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When a single column of particles of a granular medium (A) is oscillated vertically, the particles experience a time-dependent acceleration Γ. If this acceleration is below the lift-off acceleration loΓ (B), the particles stay in contact and the whole column (pile) will stay together and perform the movement: the pile will therefore behave like a solid body. If the acceleration is larger (C), the particles will separate and stay mostly separated due to collisions. The pile will behave more like a fluid.