Sliding through a superlight granular medium.

We explore the penetration dynamics of an intruder in a granular medium composed of expanded polystyrene spherical particles. Three features distinguish our experiment from others studied so far in granular physics: (a) the impact is horizontal, decoupling the effects of gravity and the drag force; (b) the density of the intruder rho(i) is up to 350 times larger than the density of the granular medium rho(m); and (c) the way the intruder moves through the material, sliding at the bottom of the column with small friction. Under these conditions we find that the final penetration D scales with (rho(i)/rho(m)) and the drag force Fd and D saturate with the height of the granular bed.