I'm looking for the packing factor of jelly beans for a contest at work. Yes, you guessed it, how many jelly beans in a jar.

I know the maximum packing factor for spheres is 74%. I've also heard that "smarties" have a higher packing factor than regular spheres. I'm just wondering if anyone has ever done any experiments on the packing factor of jelly beans.

OR..... if anyone has a somewhat large container at home that they can fill with jelly beans to a certain level, then count how many jelly beans fit into that space, and later, fill the container to the same level with water and measure its volume, then report back to this forum.

speedfreak227

This may help...
http://answers.yahoo.com/quest ... qid=20061027185424AAkFQra

ROFL! Grandma use to do this for us grandkids when I was young. I always just guessed rather than calculate it out. Boy, wish I could come up with "packing factor" when I was 10. I would have won those jars of M&M's every time .