Basically title.
My basic physics knowledge says that the larger chips - near the top of a bag of chips - are not “stable”, they are kinda precariously balanced only at one or two points. But once the brittle chips break down, they tend to settle at the bottom because the crumbles are more “stable” there, and are at a lower state of potential energy.
Just my own theory, but would like to know what others think here.
Edit : Does this question not belong to this community ? I couldn’t explain the downvotes…
Same thing happens if you put large and small pebbles in a jar and agitate it. The small ones migrate downwards to fill in the gaps between the big ones. Even if the big ones move to the bottom, they will end up propping each other up, preventing the other large ones from falling further, and creating gaps for the small ones to fall into.