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Researchers Discover That Sand Behaves Like Water

Posted by Soulskill on from the not-in-your-stomach dept.

Xeger writes "University of Chicago researchers have found that streams of sand can behave in a similar manner to liquids, forming water-like droplets when poured from a funnel. To obtain these results, they dropped their expensive high-speed camera from a height of several meters and observed the sand forming into droplets — something that shouldn't happen without surface tension. These findings suggest that conventional engineering wisdom about sand, dirt and other grainy materials needs to be rethought, and that it might be possible to apply fluid dynamics to some solids problems."

3 of 192 comments (clear)

  1. They dropped their expensive camera? by hey! · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Haven't they heard of strobe lights?

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  2. It's the air. by vettemph · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Maybe this tells us more about what the air is doing than what the sand is doing. Chaotic particles spiraling down end up it in each others draft and stay there. (think nascar drafting)

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  3. !News by Thelasko · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Okay, maybe the sand forming droplets is news. However, my old college roommate is a structural engineer. On more than one occasion he told me that structural engineers consider soil to be a highly viscous fluid.

    For example, most houses are built to "float" in the soil like a boat. For structures that won't "float", like skyscrapers, they have to drive piles down to bedrock.

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