How do collision history and source shape sand grains?
Sitting on a beach pouring sand through your fingers and wondering how there could possibly be that much of it, all so tiny and round — a perfect summer-vacation question.
Talk about it
- Pour some sand through your fingers and ask: there's way too much to count — where could all of this possibly have come from?
- Look at a grain up close: it's round and smooth. A chip off a rock is sharp. So what happened to the grain to wear it down?
- Next time you see a mountain or a cliff, ask: is the river at the bottom slowly turning that into sand right now?