finding a needle in a haystack

[BMAD]

You were having fun playing with your red and blue balls each identical in weight and type with diameters of 4 inches. Some other person snatched your five balls and through them into the top of a large bin. The bin was 10 feet tall and full of 1000 large balls each with diameter of 2 feet. The bin has a unique function in that every time it receives five balls (regardless of size and weight) the bin closes and shakes violently for five minutes.

1. Assuming the bin was full of these large balls where the tops of the balls matched the top of the container and each ball touches the other balls without bending, how wide is the container? (A range of possible answers will suffice, if necessary)

2. To get your balls back you must ask the technician where they are located, these technicians are easilly bored and will not look far from precisely where you tell them. Where is the best place to have them open the bin to find your balls? (Assume that no balls fall out when the container is open)

[Rob_Gandy]

You should open up the bottom of the box because the balls with a diameter of 4in would fall through any gap if the balls are stacked directly on top of each other and you should open the top if the balls are stacked in alternating slotted rows.

[BMAD]

You should open up the bottom of the box because the balls with a diameter of 4in would fall through any gap if the balls are stacked directly on top of each other and you should open the top if the balls are stacked in alternating slotted rows.

Are both of these ways possible with the given information?

[BMAD]

I forgot to mention that this bin is a cylinder

[TimeSpaceLightForce]

if is it about 32ft wide, then we shall notice some ball on top is higher where the red and blue balls are beneath them.

[TimeSpaceLightForce]

200 X 5 layered lattice before churning