  We carry out a direct comparison of experimental and numerical realizations
of the exact same granular system as it undergoes shear jamming. We adjust the
numerical methods used to optimally represent the experimental settings and
outcomes up to microscopic contact force dynamics. Measures presented here
range form microscopic, through mesoscopic to system-wide characteristics of
the system. Topological properties of the mesoscopic force networks provide a
key link between micro and macro scales. We report two main findings: the
number of particles in the packing that have at least two contacts is a good
predictor for the mechanical state of the system, regardless of strain history
and packing density. All measures explored in both experiments and numerics,
including stress tensor derived measures and contact numbers depend in a
universal manner on the fraction of non-rattler particles, $f_{NR}$. The force
network topology also tends to show this universality, yet the shape of the
master curve depends much more on the details of the numerical simulations. In
particular we show that adding force noise to the numerical data set can
significantly alter the topological features in the data. We conclude that both
$f_{NR}$ and topological metrics are useful measures to consider when
quantifying the state of a granular system.
