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Grains of Sand

Grains of Sand
by Nate on 01/05/04 at 12:13:58

Way back when, I remember a question asked in my high school science class...

[color=Red]What would the volume be of 1 Billion grains of sand? [/color]

I don't believe we ever found the answer due to the complexity of it.  It was more or less a brain teaser for us.

If you think you can give it an educated guess, I'd love to hear it and your explanation.


Re: Grains of Sand
by Robert Fogt on 01/05/04 at 14:44:36

It would be tough to get an accurate volume.

It would be easy enough to measure the volume of a single grain of sand. Even measure several to get an average. But....

Every add water to sand?  The volume gets smaller as it packs.  Sand doesn't pack together exactly so you'd somehow also need to measure the average gaps of air between them.

Then there is also the question about your question in that does it mean packed sand, or loose sand.

I think the easiest way would be to count out a certain amount of sand, say 1,000,000 grains, then calculate the volume of that. A billion would be a thousand times more.


Re: Grains of Sand
by Nate on 01/06/04 at 08:07:40

Wet packed or dry loose Its all arbitrary.  Its more of the fascination of the knowledge.  To be honest, I have no clue what the volume would be.  It could be 1 cubic foot, or 10 cubic yards, or more.  Now...who can we get to count out 1M grains of sand?  ;D


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