Numerical study of galton board experiment via discrete element method simulation

Abstract

Galton board is an experimental device invented by Francis Galton in 1873. A particle thrown into the Galton board moves down due to gravity and bounces off pegs along its path down. Galton claimed it to be a random system, in which each particle has equal probability of moving to the left or right side of each peg it bounces off. It means that the final distribution of particles in the bottom part of the device shall approximate the shape of the binomial curve or Gaussian distribution. In this work, the behaviour of particles when moving through the Galton board using the discrete element numerical method was studied. The objective was to verify if the result of the simulation with calibrated input parameters of the contact model shows binomial distribution of particles in the bins in the bottom part of the Galton board as in the case of real experiments with various constructions and versions of Galton boards.