If a handful of soil is shaken with water and left to settle, the soil particles will settle from light to heavy particles as follows
humus, clay, silt, sand, stones
humus, silt, clay, sand, stones
humus, clay,silt, stones, sand
humus, sand, silt, clay, stones
clay, humus, silt, sand, stones
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Clay is smaller than humus yes
I see your reasoning! But actually, in this case, E is still not the correct answer. That's because even though clay is smaller than humus, the stones are still the largest particles, and they will settle last. So the answer is still option A. The answer options are based on the order that the particles settle, not the size of the particles themselves. Does that make sense? 
The correct order of soil particles settling from light to heavy is B. humus, silt, clay, sand, stones.
Here's why:
- Humus: This is the lightest and will float on top of the water.
- Silt: These particles are finer than sand but coarser than clay. They will settle after the humus.
- Clay: Clay particles are extremely fine and take a longer time to settle than silt.
- Sand: Sand particles are coarser than silt and clay and will settle after them.
- Stones: These are the heaviest and will settle at the bottom.
So, when a handful of soil is shaken with water and left to settle, the layers will form in the order of lightest to heaviest particles. Hence, the correct answer is B.
