"The Physics of Sand Castles" — from The Economist

Here is a useful link about the engineering properties of sand castles.  It’s mostly about the moisture content.

Best wishes

Steve Reszetniak
London

4 August 2012

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Dear Steve,

Thanks for this — gives us a break from the excitement (or boredom?) of the Olympics.

We hadn’te really focused on this before, but now we know that, without water, sand is useless as a building material.

The article and the comments present a fascinating discussion of exactly (dull men like to be exact) how much water to add to the sand in order to make sand castles.

Great topic for DMC meetings.

DMC