To pack more into the same space you have to break bigger things down into smaller things. Is this robustly true? I imagine one gallon of flour weighs more than one gallon of wheat grains.
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But it’s a packing problem that depends on the shape. I imagine breaking up a bunch of cubes into random chunks would create a pile with higher volume than the original cubes optimally close-packed.
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Depends on the level of space filling in the bigger thing. For low density polyurethane foams, you can store it in a very small volume if you crush the foam.
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Or change its state. Water is denser than ice. More generally, it depends on its shape. If you can change the shape, that sometimes helps.



