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Why don't marbles naturally arrange themselves like a crystal?

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up vote 22 down vote favorite 8 Most solids are crystalline in nature because the energy released during the formation of ordered structure is more than that released during the formation of disordered structure such that the crystalline state is the lower energy state. So if we take different marbles in a box and shake it then shouldn't they arrange themselves in order to get to a low energy state? But we see they arrange in a disorderly way. Why do different phenomenon occur in these two cases? solid-state-physics crystals share | cite | improve this question edited Nov 25 at 7:48 Kyle Oman 14.2k 7 52