I notice when people buy a new pack of cigarettes, they tend to tap it sharply against their palm or flat surface before opening them.
Whats the reasoning behind this behaviour? I used to smoke, never did this, and never bothered to ask those who did. I never saw a reason to tap the box.
Because it’s KEWL, man! 
Seriously, some people think that it “settles” the tobacco. I doubt that there have been statistical studies about differences in losse flakes, burning rates and so on between tapped and untapped boxes, so it’s probably going to remain one of the Great Questions Of Our Time.
I do it, and there is a reason for it. When I tap the box (2 or 3 good ones) it compacts the tobacco inside the paper. You can actually see that the tobacco is slightly recessed after you do this. I tend to do it because if I don’t, I lose my cherry (the burning part of the cig) more often. Trust me, there’s no greater panic than driving down the road, taking a hit of your cigarette and wondering why your lungs aren’t filling with smoke, upon which you check the floor, the seats and your lap to make sure you’re not on fire.
It’s called Packing, and I believe Cecil already covered this (however I don’t think he did the topic justice…)
Could someone find a link and post it?
Anyways, yes, it does pack the tobacco in the cigarette more tightly, you can tell a difference by the recessed tobacco at the end of the cigarette. For me, at least, this serves two purposes:
the cigarette lights more quickly with more paper exposed at the end, and it burns more slowly and consistently – which means I am less apt to flick the cherry off into the ashtray.
Here we go … http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_198.html
Ah, yup. That covers it. Thanks much.
Well, first time for everything, I guess. Cecil is clearly wrong on this one.
Packing cigs is clearly beneficial for the reasons JETGIRL mentioned. There is visible evidence of this every time you pack them. One can see that the tobacco is packed in there tightly leaving a couple of mm’s of air in the end of the cig.
However, properly packing cigs is difficult to do. Cecil attempted to do this himself and saw no difference. This is because it takes some practice and skill to do properly. Cecil then used this one poor test to assume that the packing ritual served no practical purpose.
Then when many people write in telling him that he is wrong, he assumes that they are all wrong because they are citing different reasons from eachother. But, in reality most of what they are saying is correct. There are many benefits to smoking properly packed cigs including:
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Packed cigs light more evenly because of the paper sticking out of the end after packing.
Packed cigs burn better (less canoe’ing) because the tobacco is packed tightly.
Packed cigs burn longer because the tobacco is packed tightly.
With unfilters - smoking the packed end means less tobacco in the mouth (I didn’t smoke unfilters when I smoked so I am taking their word for this, but it makes sense to me.)
The cherry stays on the cig much better when packed.
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Debaser is right. It is very difficult to learn to properly pack a cigarette. Took me forever!
I typically pack my cigs, filter end down, several times very hard against the palm of my hand. Then I will rotate the pack 90 degrees and pack the side. I repeat this for each side and then do several more against the filter end again. This usually results in 3-4 mm’s of paper at the end. If you twist the paper between your fingers it looks like a joint.
Also, if I buy a box instead of a soft pack, I will press each corner of the box against a hard, flat surface. This “rounds” the edges of the box so that the corners do not poke me while in my pocket.
Yes, it usually takes me about a minute to open a pack of smokes. 