A couple of questions about grains of sand

Z

z103

Guest
I was walking along the beach earlier today and a couple of things occurred to me that may have simple explanations.

1. Why do most grains of sand look to be about the same size? - why don't they grind down finer, to dust?

2. The large pebbles had smooth edges, as you would expect. Why to grains of sand have sharp edges? - Why don't they look like miniature pebbles instead of 'cubes'?


Any help would be appreciated.
 
1. They are not of uniform size; ask any quarryman. They might appear uniform along a sea shore because they have been sifted and graded by the elements. Dig down a foot or two and you will probably see the smaller, dustier particles.

2. Can't help here; sorry.
 
Think about all the sand particles on all the beaches of this planet. Thats how many suns (stars) there are in the universe.
 
Whilst on the subject, believe it or not I'm actually the owner of the world's largest collection of seashells.

Maybe you've seen it - I keep it on all the beaches of the world.
 
My guess is that leghorn is writing his thesis on human behaviour in online communities ie. ask about some simple topic & see where the discussion leads ie how long before it goes off topic, how long before insults begin, people banned etc etc (ooops let the cat outta da bag there leghorn)

ninsaga
 
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
 
Berlin said:
That's one hell of a coincidence. :)
Click to expand...

We're still counting and double checking (especially the sand count) but it's not far off the mark. There are a couple of beaches in southern Iraq, which we are finding it difficult to get volunteers to count.
 
davidoco said:
We're still counting and double checking (especially the sand count) but it's not far off the mark. There are a couple of beaches in southern Iraq, which we are finding it difficult to get volunteers to count.
Click to expand...

Who's we? - not the freemasons is it??;)
 
Once sand grinds down further, it's defined as clay, and then silt. I can't remember the rest of the scale.
 
Crugers said:
It takes millions of billions of trillions of quadrillions of grains of sand to make a beach,
It only takes one to ruin a sandwich!
Click to expand...

...which begs the question - Why name that most versatile of cullinary delights after the one thing that destroys it.

There's a Greek tragedy in there somewhere.
 
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