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. 2014 Nov 18;111(48):17054–17059. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1415298111

Fig. 3.

Fig. 3.

Illustration of a local configuration of particles that gives rise to small displacements when opening the central horizontal contact. Line thickness represents, schematically, force magnitude in the central region. Even if the force f0 in the surrounding contacts is on the order of the mean force, f0f, the force in the horizontal contact can be small if the angle ϕ is small, and displacements resulting from opening that contact will be of order δRsin(ϕ).