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Is the world really running out of sand?

practical.engineering

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Re: Is the world really running out of sand?

#71

Post by hinkley »

WillAdams wrote: post #50
justinator wrote: post #39

We're running out of most everything, in a very The Limits to Growth/World3 kinda of way.

Isaac Asimov was an early writer on this, noting that if the earth's crust was converted into biomass the limiting element was phosphorous --- look at USDA photos of food crops grown w/ and w/o fertilizer including that element for a very sobering view. Currently, we expend up to 10 calories of petro-chemical energy to get 1 calorie of food energy (depending on food) --- peak oil is still worrisome given how much of…

The best solution we have so far is outlawing all fishing in certain areas of the ocean. Picked well, the fish are safe there to breed and recover population numbers, and you only harvest schools that leave the exclusion zone due to crowding.

Re: Is the world really running out of sand?

#72

Post by hinkley »

ses1984 wrote: post #43
rpigab wrote: post #41

> If we use the US Department of Agriculture’s soil textural triangle, sand is any granular material that is at least 85% sand… Cool, I just added a single grain of sand to a tonne of snow, now I have a tonne of sand. How convenient.

If you add a single grain of sand to a tonne of snow, it’s not 85% sand.

Seems somebody slept through Intro to Logic.

Re: Is the world really running out of sand?

#73

Post by encom »

bregma wrote: post #45
colechristensen wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Washington Post headline: >'The Eagle Has Landed' – Two Men Walk on the Moon That is the entire story, in the headline as it should be. I want to know more! The first sentence should add the most relevant added information. It shouldn't be "As a child Neil Armstrong always dreamed about..." burying the next most important detail 2/3 through the article. The importance/relevance/interest should start high, end low…

Holy cow, don't look for recipes on the web. If you're luck any ingredients and instructions are only 2/3 through. More often 23 pages through.

https://based.cooking/

Re: Is the world really running out of sand?

#74

Post by ars »

tminima wrote: post #57

I noticed that the two bars were breaking differently under the hydraulic press. One was crumbling and the other (manufactured) was exploding . There was no mention of this effect in the video. It couldn't be the due to force because in the 2nd half the manufactured bar broke at a lower force. Could this factor has consequences on how manufactured sand concrete behaves with natural phenomenon (hurricanes, earthquakes…

Exploding means it was keeping its integrity for longer (i.e. not compressing), and then releasing it when it couldn't anywhere.

Crumbling means it was falling apart.

A paper book will explode in a press because it does not have any way to compress and release any of the force on it, until it releases all of it in one shot.

Re: Is the world really running out of sand?

#75

Post by tomrod »

diggan wrote: post #13
eichin wrote: post #5

Ironically, we just hit an entirely different "sand catastrophe" - https://mastodon.social/@mimsical/113232531800424706 > the crucibles used to create ingots of silicon which become microchips are made from an ultra-pure quartz sand -- and 70% of the world's supply comes from just one place in North Carolina [Spruce Pine]

> and 70% of the world's supply comes from just one place in North Carolina A quick search seems to say there are more places available for getting that than North Carolina. Is it possible that this specific mine just happens to be the cheapest available right now, but in case they for some reason disappear, there are alternatives everyone would switch to? Or is the situation that if that mine disappears, there is no…

Availability, production scale, and knowledge base.

I think things will probably pan out okay, maybe a rough month or two as roads (even if rough cut new logging roads), utilities, and prioritized community services get fixed up. Synthetic option is available, apparently, just a bit costly.

Re: Is the world really running out of sand?

#76

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

eichin wrote: post #5

Ironically, we just hit an entirely different "sand catastrophe" - https://mastodon.social/@mimsical/113232531800424706 > the crucibles used to create ingots of silicon which become microchips are made from an ultra-pure quartz sand -- and 70% of the world's supply comes from just one place in North Carolina [Spruce Pine]

I wrote this comment on an article that was on HN about 6 months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39818778

Sadly, given the insane amount of devastation in western NC, I'll get a chance to test my hypothesis. That is, despite Spruce Pine going offline, the overall impact to the global semiconductor industry will be relatively unnoticeable.

Re: Is the world really running out of sand?

#78

Post by havblue »

Maxatar wrote: post #16
anamexis wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FYI it's "bury the lede," a lede being the introductory section of a news story.

The word "lede" was introduced in the 1970s as an alternative spelling for the word "lead" to resolve ambiguity between the leading paragraph of an article and the metal "lead" which was used in typesetting. It didn't even become popular until the 1980s. In fact, prior to the 1980s, it was indeed spelled "bury the lead". Here for example is an excerpt from a book about newswriting from the 1970s which uses "lead" as…

Meanwhile, the group "Led Zeppelin" also avoided the ambiguous spelling to prevent people from pronouncing their name "leed zeppelin". You can't win with lead.

Re: Is the world really running out of sand?

#79

Post by mcculley »

One thing that surprised me when I started running a tugboat business: A country can be both an exporter and importer of sand. Sand of one type goes from the U.S. to The Bahamas to be used in concrete. Sand of another type goes from The Bahamas to the U.S. to be used in aquariums. Specialty sands go to make regulation volleyball courts.

Re: Is the world really running out of sand?

#80

Post by jayrot »

airstrike wrote: post #42
rootusrootus wrote: post #20

Every time I watch a practical engineering video I like Grady more and more. Great presenter, interesting videos, great value for the time spent watching. Gets right to the point in the first sentence, and the rest of the video is still worth watching. Add me to the long list of people who heard the bit about desert sand not being suitable for concrete and believed it. I'm happy to be corrected.

I don't even care about sand but he's so great I couldn't stop watching it

That's the sign of a truly great "content creator". I've found myself watching a lot of different YT channels on topics I would NEVER have thought I had any interest in.
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