Is the World Really Running Out of Sand?

[@PracticalEngineeringChannel]

⚡I have more than 20 videos about soil! kzbin.info/aero/PLTZM4MrZKfW-A419dqGZVtw6CAANqKR1f 🌌Get Nebula using my link for 40% off an annual subscription: go.nebula.tv/Practical-Engineering

[@babaluto]

I recall the concrete report for the lake Powell dam that pioneered fly ash in concrete, had a section on sand particle shape. They delineated between river vs mined sand. I found much of what you're talking about here is very true in adobe production. Great topic.

[@iThinkCat]

Loved the video. The thrust of your video is spot on, but I think the statement "The world is running out of sand" has a grain of truth to it. Sand is a very diverse resource and there are many different kinds of sand outside of just it's size and angularity. Composition is another big factor for certain applications. Certain kinds of semi-conductor chips require as pure of SiO4 as we can get. Sands with too many contaminates just aren't economical to use for that sort of application and the few natural sources of 99.999% pure SiO4 sand are in fact running out. "Natural" is definitely the load bearing term there, but that's what I think a lot of people mean. We're running out of naturally occurring sources and now have to resort to more expensive processed or synthetic sources. This doesn't appear to be as much the case in your specific example of concrete, but I think the context around someone saying a statement like "we're running out of sand" requires consideration. What kind of sand are they talking about when they say "sand". Thanks for choosing another interesting topic, Grady.

[@spychopath]

"This isn't grain surgery"? Quit with the Dad jokes, Hillhouse!

[@every13311days]

You know that nothing can be created nor destroyed, so no, we will never run out of anything.

[@hankhulator5007]

Hi, I had a grand-father a bit like you but in mechanics, although there was no video at this time, so I can imagine what it is for your son, no time to get bored. ;)

[@Psygnosis7]

Concrete is to Practical Engineering as is The Refrigeration Cycle is to Technology Connections

[@Mikel30222]

Just....for the love of God, don't get him started on turn signals and brake lights

[@WhatShallMyUsernameBe]

The KZbin lore deepens. Edit: this comment thread warms my heart

[@WhatShallMyUsernameBe]

@@Mikel30222 OR DISHWASHERS

[@robertellis6853]

Through the power of buying two!

[@JohnSmithShields]

Or Christmas/Holiday lights.

[@Wetcorps]

"Those costs have always been there. We just externalized them onto the environment and our future." Strong line here.

[@x--.]

100%

[@missedyadobalina8619]

Good thing we only do that with sand

[@bannor99]

that's the story of industry, from long before we called it that

[@paddington1670]

"We Do Not Inherit the Earth from Our Ancestors; We Borrow It from Our Children"

[@anujmchitale]

​@@paddington1670 Those 2 aren't mutually exclusive.

[@Ladadadada]

Fun fact: 2% of the world's yearly consumption of sand goes through a clear perspex box in Grady's garage.

[@TheChipmunk2008]

it has to be a higher percentage surely?

[@-danR]

Another fun fact: Sand is still boring.

[@GewelReal]

​@@TheChipmunk2008cringe profile picture

[@TheEzzran]

@@GewelReal Cringe political comment on a Civil Engineering video.

[@TheChipmunk2008]

@@GewelReal why... Like Russia do you?

[@almitydave]

Alright, so the key takeaways are: 1) manufactured sand is more coarse and irritating due to the sharp edges 2) natural sand is better at getting everywhere due to the rounded grains reducing friction

[@djinn666]

Technically not all natural sand. The sand is rounded due to erosion, so in places with no erosion, e.g. the moon, you get very abrasive sand.

[@midwinter78]

​@@djinn666I'm guessing Tatooine sand is nicely windblown.

[@justinmeyerr]

@@djinn666 dumbest reply and example go to: you

[@Apokalypse456]

@@justinmeyerr in fairness the moon is natural. a very far fetched example yes, but true nonetheless.

[@chromesucks5299]

Natural sand (or sand particles with rounded grains IS VERY IMPORTANT IN SILICON-SEMI CONDUCTOR making, and thats the sand that is naturally 'running out'

[@inlovewithgoats1092]

How often you said "I also made a video on this" really showed me how much I have learned watching this channel over the years. Thank you so much!

[@cellgrrl]

I am a grandmother who took great interest in the San Antonio lift station build. I will watch anything, such as sand, when presented in an interesting way. Grady does it.

[@Psikeomega]

Field carpenter here, I've spent some time working in construction quality control for a little bit which means I'm working alongside engineers on a regular basis. We don't so much use concrete in my niche industry, but we use grout for the work we specifically do. We have 3 different engineered ratios of mix to water that we are supposed to use. One of them is flowable. You have no idea how many workers I've seen walk on one of my jobs and want to mix it by eye and feel because "this is how we always mix it" instead of following the engineering. We usually have to hand pump or funnel it so it has to be off the flowable chart. Then I see them with their full weight on the pump handle because they don't understand why their stuff mix can't go through the equipment and it costs the company and customer money in wasted materials and manpower to clean the equipment, and time to remove the grout that has voids and bubbles. I guess what I'm getting at is that I fully understand the frustration that happens when the guy with the clipboard looks away and the workers do what they feel is better than the spec book

[@IanBMorris]

This seems like a never ending battle, where the engineer is always wrong and the boots on the ground know better, except there are many engineers and lots of literature that is very valid, and lots of boots that are off that charts. The yin and yang of the construction industry it seems.

[@Psikeomega]

@@IanBMorris so in my specific corner of the industry I am lucky that we tend to have engineers that are readily available to us that are able to make pretty quick changes as needed. (Boeing could take a note if that) Because believe it or not, there's a lot of moving parts and things do get overlooked in design. But that ultimately comes back on the trades and their management to step up and say that either something is missing or that something doesn't look right. Especially when we have engineers that are so swamped that they can't get into the field, they love it when we are able to produce field drawings and photos with possible solutions to a problem that they can put numbers to and determine if they will work or not. But we also tend to get our share of folks that think they know best. The guy from the example I gave outranked me, I went through the appropriate chain of command, and I had it dealt with since quality control is still one of my roles and I know better. Because of what he did in 5 minutes it cost us a week of man-hours for a team of 6. Coming from a tradesman, the engineer does their best to be right. But if we know it's wrong before we do it, then it doesn't matter if they told us to or not, it's still not right. That's why we have RFIs (and some of us have the engineers phone numbers)

[@IanBMorris]

@@Psikeomega that's how it should work it seems, everything is a collaboration and everyone is working towards th same goal, or at least they should be. Not everyone is perfect, and when there are big projects with lots of moving parts and lots of eyes on everything it's good to be able to adapt and adjust in the field.

[@Psikeomega]

@@IanBMorris yeah, you get it. I've been on a lot of projects in my decade in the trades. But the most money gets made when everyone gets along and plays their part. Then the companies get more contracts and the trades make more money because of it. That's why my current employer actually has office team members whose full time job it is to coordinate with the other trades, engineers and our field workers.

[@ironwoodnf]

The ol book vs street smarts at play here.

[@Imevul]

"Hammer the point home"... "grain surgery". The puns in this video are off the charts, and I'm all for it!

[@uwepelz]

😂😂😂

[@Benson_aka_devils_advocate_88]

Grain surgery is my favorite so far! 😅

[@ben_hell4437]

Couldn't have said it better.

[@HermanVonPetri]

Still... it's not exactly rock science is it?

[@CeeJMantis]

​@@HermanVonPetriI think when you get down to the nitty-gritty, it is

[@Skjutentrast]

I worked as a concrete technician at a plant a while back, during which we transitioned from using riverbed sand to crushed rock for the 0-4 sand. The plan was also to phase out the 0-2 in the same way. 0-8 and 4-8 etc were always crushed rock. This was done due to sand running out close by, and continued extraction would have had an impact on the ground water. You hit most of the points, like how you have to adjust V/C ratios and add some chemicals to get the new recipies, but for us the most noticable difference was the wear and tear on our mixers. Parts that used to be replaced yearly now had to be changed 3-4 times a year. The sharp edges of the crushed stuff does not play nice with machinery. Anyhow, I think it is somewhat true that we are running out of natural sand in many places. But it is always a local shortage.

[@sage5296]

I'd guess that the extra 2-3 replacements a year are still cheaper than getting the sand from somewhere more distant if the company is deciding to go through with that. Just goes to show how much transportation cost plays into it

[@josiahrandolphbaldwin8272]

yup, the bottleneck is transport. the guy that makes a cheaper/bigger boat is gonna be loaded; the guy that discovers sand in the Sahara desert is still gonna be poor lol.

[@Skjutentrast]

@@sage5296 Yeah, you just has to deal with it. One thing you can do is to store the crushed stuff in the open air for 3-4 years, turn it over every now and then. Smoothes it down a bit so it isn't as abrasive, and removes some of the finer dust. You could also tumble it, but that is a significant added cost. The difficulty isn't technical, it is economic. Hard to tell what actually makes sense.

[@kimmogensen4888]

Greenland has enormous amounts of the sand needed to concrete, and I mean enormous, there are scientific studies in nature science journal about it

[@josiahrandolphbaldwin8272]

@@Skjutentrast hey I wonder what would happen in a tumbler... cost effective? maybe it would go faster if you mixed sand with it to rub the sharp edges off...

[@empressassassin9975]

I'm a geologist, and it's so novel to see things from ths "other side of the fence", so to speak. Even just hearing about the way sand is classified is so interesting! Of course, I knew that the level of specificity required for our measurements vs yours is different, but there's something very strange about seeing it in practice.

[@seneca983]

Which one requires the higher precision?

[@empressassassin9975]

@seneca983 It depends on the context, but I think engineering tends to have a higher *average* level of precision across the board, as opposed to geology which sometimes gets very precise but sometimes works with very broad strokes. It isn't that geologists don't measure things whatsoever or that we never care about precision, but it's less of a big deal to us in contexts like these, like if sand is coarse as opposed to very coarse. Feel free to ask away if you have any other questions or want me to upond on that subject!

[@MrNicoJac]

I always thought sand _also_ had to have a specific chemical composition (like x% silica, or whatever). And that, for instance, just crushing up marble or granite or whatever, would make "rock dust" but not (true) _sand._ Apparently this is not correct, for civil engineers at least. Is it true for geologists, or also not? :)

[@joemadda]

​@@MrNicoJacto me in a geoarchaeological context sand is a particle size from 2,000um to 62.5um that can then be defined compositionally. I've been in locations where the sand was micaceous lacky any true amount of quartz. I had a geologist on my dissertation committee as I mainly studied clay mineralogy and geochemistry for pottery production so I'm not completely ignorant.

[@errorunknown3438]

At my school my group did an entire project on the feasibility of recycling concrete as sand for our senior design project. We found that it was a pretty good replacement for a good portion of the sand even if the concrete used was old.

[@flowerheit4512]

"The costs have always been there, we've just externalized them onto our environment or our future" is a statement that holds true for SO MANY THINGS where people complain it's getting more expensive!

[@crackedemerald4930]

like buying an old Mercedes, it can be extremely cheap, but oh boy, the maintenance.

[@Vangard21]

And continues to this day. "Nuclear is so expensive".... relative to hydrocarbons.... because we ignore the externalized costs of carbon pollution.

[@SgtLion]

@@Vangard21 Or solar storage, more relevantly. Given the externalised costs of nuclear fuel mining.

[@secondlayer7898]

​@@SgtLion Still vastly lower than those of fossil fuels

[@bactrosaurus]

Diamonds never were worth their price

[@Deneberus]

1:50 "Sand is any granular material that is at least 85% sand." Hmm yes the sand here is made out of sand.

[@no_rubbernecking]

More precisely, he said sand is that which is composed of sand, 🤣 👍🏼.

[@FireStormOOO_]

I chuckled, though you'll find most technical fields have far more quantities they need to track than relevant English words - And so frequently end up with the same word referring to multiple quantities. In this case there's the size classification for sand, and then the criteria for if a mixture of grain sizes counts as sand.

[@thefooshisloose]

@@randomuser-xc2wr If only sand was an element, then this logic would work.

[@ObjectsInMotion]

The floor here is made of floor!

[@thefooshisloose]

@@ObjectsInMotion The snozzberries taste like snozzberries!

[@rmanami]

I like sand. It's fine and useful and ubiquitous and is everywhere.

[@S.G.W.Verbeek]

They are the chosen ones.

[@fisheyefilms2512]

Obi Wan, I love you!

[@FailRaceFan]

When you left me I was the master, but now I am the learner.

[@kenbrown2808]

just remember that it is an abrasive, not a lubricant.

[@j_ferguson]

This comment is too accurate for a sandperson.

[@alystair]

Thanks so much for the excellent subtitles/CC - the effort is worth it!

[@bennykakerautodidact]

We’ve been taking sand for granite.

[@catdownthestreet]

Oh my god. Go sit in the corner and think about what you did.

[@DM-yj9qf]

as usual it's not that we're running out of X, it's that we're running out of CHEAP X

[@joeystoney3678]

Reminds me of a documentary I watched back in highschool cashed the end of oil. It was just talking about the end of peak oil and cheap oil

[@cherriberri8373]

​​@@joeystoney3678 yep same, but of course climate deniers like pointing out we still have oil, as if that casts any doubt on the research or data. Like... yes. We didn't think we would just suddenly not have oil. It's almost never about not having it anymore, it's about the price

[@Wordbird69]

Wait...people deny that climate exists?

[@joeystoney3678]

@@Wordbird69 the leader of the BC Conservatives is an example. And he's primed to be the next premier if his party wins the next election

[@Llortnerof]

@@Wordbird69 People deny gravity exists. Much to my dismay, they refuse to continously move upwards after jumping.

[@micahgordon4559]

I was a geotechnical / environmental driller for ten years, ten years ago. This episode brought back some fantastic memories. Two things I will never forget are; "dirt is a dirty word" and "overburden is not a burden, it's some peoples life's work". Drilling in saturated sands / silts resulted in some of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my career. Understanding soil composition is vital, not only to provide good samples to the engineer, but also to recover your equipment from the borehole. This was another great episode and hit close to home for me, thanks and keep it up!

[@ladyeowyn42]

I rented some equipment to attempt to drill a hole in our yard. Quickly learned it was not an amateur job after the giant drill got stuck! It took a long time to wiggle it out… sans head bit, which was only $32 to replace.

[@psyche141]

I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere.

[@iuristasiv9360]

It depends allot on the beach

[@TheROOTminus1]

I like sand. Sand is squishy.

[@dosmastrify]

Came here to find this. Thank you.

[@Mr.PoopyDoobertPants]

It’s treason then.

[@nealsterling8151]

So poetic, i guess it rhymes in some way.

[@drecksaukerl]

I've been a structural engineer for 40 years and still learn new things in many of your videos. This one is really good.

[@marijandesin8226]

You get an instant 👍 like for giving the fact straight up I'd like to encourage other youtubers to adopt this format

[@Nighthawkinlight]

Excellent video! What a weird thing for a fake sand fact to have spread so far and wide. A good reminder to be careful about repeating things I really don't know anything about.

[@snakesonn]

Excellent comment by yourself as usual too.

[@makego]

It is accurate to give the qualified fact, though, that we are running out of more affordable sand. We're not running out of water, either; the planet is mostly covered in it!

[@Mallchad]

I have generally found I need to question almost everything I'm told and that is quite frustrating and tiresome. But by doing that I get to discover amazing truth's most people will never be graced with the knowledge of. So I guess that's nice.

[@foobar9220]

Actually, it is not that rare to have organizations massage the facts to suit their own agenda. Many organizations rely on receiving attention, and for this they rely on making the problem appear bigger than they actually are or downplay improvements. I can only recommend Factfulness by Hans Rosling

[@sandponics]

There still exists a serious shortage of 'sharp' sand, the sand used for concrete needs to have rough grains so it doesn't slump and it retains it's structural strength.

[@MonkeyJedi99]

Tell the truth. We don't use sand from sand dunes because we're afraid of the worms. That and the spice is crazy valuable.

[@tommy2u]

You watch too much tv.

[@johndeaux8815]

​@tommy2u says the guy that can't spot a joke 😂

[@nozrep]

i am afraid of diamonback rattlesnakes in the sand near my area, to take it back to reality. or on the beaches, sometime Texas sand has freaky lil sand fleas coming out of it. or actual saltwater worms. Real small, very rare. But still. sand worms on the beaches in Texas. Fireworms that can and will hurt you.

[@shrooples4639]

​@@tommy2uThe original isn't even from TV...

[@giannis_m]

@@tommy2u Dune is a book that got adapted into film. You don't read enough books.

[@jamesverhoff1899]

Sand is one of those things that differentiates geologists and engineers. You provided the engineering definition. To a geologist, "sand" is like "4 by 4" or "letter paper"--it's a size, or actually a range of sizes, not a "thing". Anything can be sand. I think of coffee grounds in terms of sand--for a French press you want medium sized sand particles, for Turkish coffee you want fine to very fine sand particles. You get to that with the screen size, but you're still defining sand by what you do to it, rather than what it is, which is sort of my point here. What I've found is that engineers think of things from different angles than geologists. The engineers I've met think of materials from the perspective "What can I do with this material?" How well does it compact? How well does it retain water? How well does it retain slopes under pressure? Geologists think of materials from the perspective "What is this material's history?" Did it get blown in or carried by a river? What sort of flow deposited them? Was it chemically altered? The differences in how we define "sand" may appear subtle, but it really highlights this difference in how we approach materials science. Both are important! But it does make it...interesting....to talk to an engineer as a geologist!

[@MalloonTarka]

Fascinating insight, thank you.

[@mfaizsyahmi]

They fortunately collide in how mechanically and chemically stable the material is. Geologists use its reactivity to know its composition and history, and engineers want to know if it would affect the chemical reactions in concrete.

[@Bubble-Foam]

This is exactly why interdisciplinary discussions are so fun and important

[@diggernash1]

So engineers figure out how to make things useful, and geologists just figure? ;) Yes, yes, I'm a civil.

[@Paplok]

Woah, that's quite profound! Now do an analysis of how programmers and house-cleaning services might have different views on windows.

[@BS-vx8dg]

I’ve loved your stuff for years, Grady, but this is the first video of yours that helped me calm down. I’ve been worried about this sand stuff for about six or seven years now, but you really put things in perspective for me. I actually feel a bit foolish to have worried about this, because I’m old enough to remember President Carter speaking to us from the White House telling us that we were absolutely going to run out of petroleum before the year 2000. Of course, I knew enough about economics even then to know that we will never “run out” of oil (though due to climate change we _will_ eventually stop burning it), but for some reason, I never applied the logic to the sand panic. And given its renewability (that I didn’t realize until this video), our future supplies of sand are more secure than our future supplies of petroleum. Well done.

[@MyrKnof]

0:56 man, if you had said "taken for granite" i'd have spat my drink..

[@FEJK82]

It shocks me how many people have no clue it is actually 'granted.' Seriously, MOST people say it wrong like that.

[@Nichole-Kerr]

It’s not grain surgery got me ! 😂😂😂 I love sand so much I named my son Sandy! My family surname is Rivers 😂

[@nomore6167]

@@FEJK82 "Seriously, MOST people say it wrong like that" - Similar to how most people nowadays incorrectly say, "I could care less." Then there are those people who can't pronounce basic words, such as those who say "nucular" instead of "nuclear" (or "let me axe you a question", or "what does this asterix mean"). And, of course, the dreaded "-ed" issue. I watched a video earlier today in which the guy actually said, "I speeded up..."

[@Patrick-zr8tv]

That's what I heard. I thought that is what he is saying.

[@OliviaMancini-w6x]

He was too focused on saying "It's one of the most 'glected materials out there!" at 1:02.

[@earpiercing]

I work at a Geotechnical engineering company as a lab technician. Every day I do grain size analysis testing and use the grain size textural triangle. I'm personally not in the field as much, but we do all of those concrete tests that you mentioned as well. It was really cool to see my day job discussed in a KZbin video from one of my favorite channels. Thank you Grady. RCA (Recycled Concrete Aggregate) is never fun to run a grain size analysis on because of how dusty it always is. I just felt like adding that bit of information :)

[@vendomnu]

Is there actually any recycled concrete that doesn't pollute if you use it as e.g. road filler? It's a standing joke here in Denmark that our EPA-clone has defined concrete as non polluting to recycle since almost all batches of cement os filled with some or other form of waste product such as ashes with a high content of undesirable element.

[@vendomnu]

Addendum: I was thinking about Fly ash that's often used - and it can contain lead and arsenic.

[@satriaamiluhur622]

It sucks that sand mining often causing ecological destruction. I'm from indonesia and our rivers and estuaries have been mined to near depletion, fisheries becomes dead and so many fishermen lost their job. And lets not talk about the amount of pollution

[@emperorjonz9590]

Just go into australian waters and fish there

[@ericcox6764]

​@emperorjonz9590 😂😂😂😂😂 (Sound of electronic typing) Tonight... On Border Security Australia... (Insert distorted guitar music here 😂😂) Heck yeah, man!! They're overdue for some new episodes!!

[@DrLoverLover]

Thats capitalism

[@kennyg1358]

​@@DrLoverLoverThankfully other political systems don't damage the environment.

[@naamadossantossilva4736]

@DrLoverLover And that is why China is the cleanest and most healthy place on Earth,where the sky is always blue,the forests are full of animals and the river waters are always drinkable.

[@johnkling3537]

Thanks!

[@paulzagieboylo7315]

6:00 Fun fact: this industrial rock-crusher machine is INCREDIBLY LOUD. No, LOUDER THAN THAT. Ordinary hearing protection is not enough to work one of these things!

[@bartolomeothesatyr]

WHAT?!

[@nomadicsynth]

@@bartolomeothesatyr ABOUT 3 O'CLOCK

[@summitcraftwork]

5:43 “Grain surgery” 😂 There’s gotta be a joke about the ‘GRADYient’ of sand. Keep ‘em coming!

[@Keyoke200]

I mean surely it *is* grain surgery...

[@mfaizsyahmi]

Nothing but the finest graded, bottom of the pan sand for the production of this video!

[@justindelecki]

😂😂😂

[@mattbennion779]

All the upvotes

[@ain92ru]

I'm pretty sure Grady has heard so many jokes of how his name is suitable to a civil engineer that he is actually tired of them =D

[@QuestionMan]

Grady: This simple material touches nearly every part of our lives. Anakin Skywalker: Tell me about it.

[@DrLoverLover]

Who?

[@cherylteach-in70berent5]

@@DrLoverLover😂

[@christopherearth9714]

​@@DrLoverLover a guy who hates sand

[@kappagrapes]

The phantom giggle hovering in the room as you say "glected"... delightful.

[@claytonmoore3027]

I learned all this in my soil mechanics class, the classification of soil is so much deeper yet it’s so simple too

[@ladyeowyn42]

I worked in a soil ecology lab in high school. It is so cool. I still love transforming lawns into ecosystems.

[@AndyFriedhof]

I would absolutely love a series like this video covering other materials crucial to the construction and maintenance of the built environment (e.g. rare earth minerals) and the potential consequences/alternatives if they did run out.

[@hainesjw]

Cement! Or phosphates!

[@KnowArt]

good video! it's a classic case of "We'Re rUnNIng oUT!" while in fact, it will just cost 10 cents more

[@snickerdoooodle]

10 cents more adds up across the cubic yardage of an entire project

[@neshirst-ashuach1881]

Sure, but "this common material wll become more expensive due to increased enviromental regulations and decreasing easily accesbile sources" is not even close to the fear-mongering nonsense people are selling when they claim "sand is running out! Society will collapse!!!".

[@JohnADoe-pg1qk]

The situation is probably (a bit) more complex. In recent decades, concrete has been subject to more and more different requirements. Sometimes it has to harden under water and be resistant to salt water, other times it has to remain workable until it is brought to the top of a skyscraper in the scorching desert heat. And there are certainly many other specific requirements that concrete has to meet for certain projects. I can imagine that the shape of the sand grains is becoming more important for some recipes.

@@snickerdoooodle Yes. But you can also economise, when the price rises. Eg Singapore uses less sand now for their land reclamation.

[@nicholausjamesjay83]

Just like "peak oil" in the 1980s

[@frogandspanner]

Here in UK we often get Sahara sand dumped on us _via_ the Harmattan winds. In late autumn/winter rain on the car often results in a pink powdering all over the vehicle.

[@fabianweber6937]

Same in Germany

[@dbayboyds409]

Is there a reference for the video shown at 0:32? It looks awesome and I want to know more!

[@jeramiecooper1913]

Great video. We also use silica sand in the power industry. Current limiting fuses are packed with silica sand to generate enough resistance which quickly stops current flow after the arc starts.

[@bwhog]

The thing here is that... not all sands are equal. Different industries require different types of sand. For example, silica sand for glass. However, the sand for glass is totally inadequate for use in fiber optics. The semi-conductor industry also uses silica sand and, again, it has to be very carefully chosen. I've heard some talk about "concrete sand" and that's mostly bunk. What is more of a concern is that there really is a practical limit to silica sand and that's becoming more and more of a concern as we consume more of it in industry after industry.

[@Ultimaximus]

Can silica sand be manufactured?

[@capt4in1]

This was my understanding too, that we’re running out of sand suitable for making processors. Or rather that the greatest supplies of it are located in countries that western nations don’t play nice with:/ Politcs has to rear its ugly head in everything:(

[@louisvaught2495]

This video is such an effective piece of communication. From reading the comments, the only change I would make is to expand the opening statement by maybe 1-2 sentences to explain, briefly, why the answer is no. I think people are jumping to conclusions without watching, and mentioning the use of different sands is an engineering challenge would help prevent people drawing motivated conclusions.

[@cherriberri8373]

Fully agreed, there's a reason people avoid saying the answer simply at the start. People are naturally lazy and will only take away what is easiest to understand while discarding most other info.

[@foxrogers8525]

"Grady Hillhouse's Artisanal Sand", only $100 per bag at your local Lowe's and Home Depot. I'll pick some up right after finishing my $10 artisanal toast¹ at the breakfast restaurant across the street from the hardware store. ¹ Totally not making up the "artisan toast".

[@Sirithil]

Does avocado spread cost extra?

[@stevenglowacki8576]

I buy artisanal-style bread for my breakfast, and to toast it would absolutely ruin it. The reason people generally eat toast instead of raw bread is that the browning reaction gives it a fuller flavor than plain bread. But the artisanal bread that I buy is has a flavor of its own I absolutely adore and wouldn't think about toasting it. Plus it doesn't fit in the toaster.

[@frederiquerijsdijk]

So we need IPv7 sand? (saying goes that IPv6 provides enough space for every sand particle to have it's own unique IP address)

[@pixselious]

Are we talking an IP for every sand particle on earth or in the universe? Are we allowed to use CGNATs?

[@lamjeri]

@@pixselious There's no NAT in IPv6. IPv6 killed this abhorrent abomination and returned IPs to the state they were always intended to be. Publicly routable (except for link local of course).

[@TheCarFarm]

Without that 'abhorrent abomination' we would not be here today, sir. 6 was never going to rollout the day it was introduced - we 'looked ahead' at 6, but knew it would be years. The boom of the internet was just around that same time, so v4 was pretty much cemented. But hey, thanks for helping the IPv7 joke.

[@nathanieljames7462]

There are 340 undecillion unique IPv6 addresses and only ~7.5 sextillion grains of sand on Earth. Each grain of sand could have 45 quadrillion unique IPv6 addresses to itself.

[@nialv7985]

did some research and i think there are about 7.5x10^18 grains of sand, which is about 2^63. IPv6 has 2^128 addresses, that's more than enough.

[@brianhind6149]

Grady, I am addicted to your site & your videos. Approaching my 85th birthday & enjoying learning about anything (when you know nothing, it is easy to learn something !) (grin). Your site is a marvelous source of info about virtually anything, & your delivery & explanations are top notch. I look forward to each subject. If the internet had been available to me as a child, I would NEVER have gone to school. I have great respect for your engineering knowledge. Cheers! from the windswept hinterlands of Alberta Canada.

[@n8hsu255]

I am surprised you overlooked the most striking feature of sand, that there 2 kinds of it. There is inland or desert sand which is silicon dioxide from eroded rocks and my favorite, beach sand or ocean floor sand made of calcium carbonate from the discarded shells and exoskeletons of sea creatures. Ocean floors overtime compress into limestone deposits. Growing up in Florida I found Gulf coast sand is coarser. Daytona beach sand is, when dry, is like powered sugar, when soaked is the softest on the feet, but, when damp is as hard as concrete allowing cars to drive and park on it during low tide. Beach erosion is increasing, but, the sand is not vanishing. It is sliding into the sea.

[@adlockhungry304]

4:12 Okay, next I’d love to hear precisely what cement actually is. It’s another one of those things we nominally understand well enough in context, but if I really think about it, I have no idea what precisely defines what is or isn’t cement.

[@choppaprod]

Cement and concrete are often used interchangeably. But more specifically concrete is the product of mixing rock aggregates like gravel with cement. cement acts as a glue that hardens over time. it is the binding material that holds aggregate together. that is how concrete is made

[@stayfrosty1012]

I work in construction, cement is used in concrete, and concrete must always have cement in it to be made, while cement can be used in other applications, like a sand cement screed under tiles. Cement itself is made out of crushed limestone and sand are mixed with ground clay, shale, iron and ash

[@leaguemastergg3647]

0:58 Actually, I would say it’s taken from Granite

[@MichaelRBaron]

That wasn't very gneiss.

[@soggybiscotti8425]

Eeeeeeyyyyyy.... stone cold. So funny I nearly Soiled myself

[@bleakrevel]

I’m glad you made the video about concrete strength. I was tempted to do this test myself but you have saved me the time.

[@hillbilly1091]

This a phenomenal video about one of our foundational materials. And well produced. Keep up the GREAT work

[@thomasmacdiarmid8251]

As I watched coverage of the aftermath of hurricane Helene, I found myself harkening back to so many things I had learned from this channel. Roads were undermined due to scouring by the Pigeon River. Some dams failed, while others stood despite being overtopped by the water. There were various sorts of avalanches. I hope that you will do a review of many of these, as they are very timely and crucial subjects.

[@newton21989]

5:16 Sand is small rocks? But it doesn't float, and therefore, weighs more than a duck.

[@carultch]

Make a 1:1 scale model of a duck out of sand, and it will weigh a lot more than a duck.

[@blar2112]

You can use round sand if you use sharp water 🤓

[@nozrep]

💀

[@BlackPen4209]

I believe it's called Snow😅

[@lizj5740]

@@BlackPen4209 Or perhaps Icicles.

[@kindlin]

Or _plasticized_ water. You can use a High Range Water Reducing (HRWR) admixture, also known as a plasticizer, to make the concrete a lot more workable. You can add a small amount of plasticizer and get concrete that moves like you just doubled the water content, while the strength is only minimally affected. Almost all construction concrete has at least 1 admixture added in, they can offer any number of other benefits (ice resistance [entrainement], crack resistance[fibers], chemical resistance [talk to a chemist], etc).

[@ryanneenan8472]

One of my favorite guys on KZbin. Loved your series on the construction of a sewer lift station. I'm in drinking water and would love to see you do one on a water treatment plant!

[@blakelives0312]

You mentioned wood as a raw material, but I'd love to see you dive into the problems that farmed wood introduces. IIRC, the quick-growing trees are less strong than the old growth forests that we used to cut down. I'm curious if you can find anything about farming denser wood without sacrificing too much of the quick grow time.

[@EebstertheGreat]

Dirt, sand, soil, clay, silt, rock, and wood are all four-letter words and cover most of the important things we build with. Even steel is just two four-letter words: iron and coal. And concrete is just sand, rock, lime, salt, and agua. And of course, the ultimate four-letter word every construction project is made of: cash. It's four-letter words all around.

[@robo5013]

Sorry, the ultimate four letter word that construction projects are made of is work. Really hard work.

[@cherriberri8373]

​@@robo5013 my thought too. I found that remark awfully blinded by capitalism

[@Brian-Mondeau37]

Fantastic puns in this one Grady 😂 hammer this point home, grain surgery. Good ones. Also fantastic info, thanks for everything you do!

[@user-eh4dg5yy2n]

2:58 great line! I am absolutely using this line at my next meeting or with my spouse

[@tttm99]

Wow! The best and most nuanced review of sand and sand in concrete I've seen. Whenever someone says 'this is how it works', over-simplifications creep in. You didn't fall into the trap and told it like it is: wickedly variable and complex. Like some of the strongest concrete I've made was set in slightly salty water on the bottom of a neglected bucket. The arguments against more earthen builds and regional variation apply to concrete too, only the strength threshold is generally higher so people don't tend to notice. Thinking like a Roman is the answer - even with no rebar the romans spanned huge gaps without support by having a dazzling understanding of different types and mixes of concrete. Concretes (and geoploymers generally) are fantastic but also fantastically complex. There's no substitute for testing your materials and processes before you scale up.

[@sennahoj9332]

Thanks for this video! It answered the "We're running out of sand" video I had watched once very well and it was interesting to watch you do your own experiments despite me not being much of an engineer!

[@matthewwilliamsracing]

I have no reason to know anything from this channel which is why i keep asking myself why ive watched every video over the past 3 years or more.....😂

[@nurmr]

Answering the titular question in the first 3 seconds of the video. Give this man a medal.

[@madvlad1]

So, the next time you're walking on the beach, enjoying an hourglass, or making cheap, low-grade windshields... think where we'd be without... sand!

[@Punchy361]

Sand, I can live without. Now imagine a world without zinc, that's a world I don't want to live in.

[@ladyeowyn42]

Grady, you seem like a great dad. I love when my son gets interested in my projects.

[@joshuapatrick682]

14:40 externalizing the cost onto the future? That might be the most American idea ever

[@nobbynoblittlun]

14:36 "Those costs have always been there; we've just externalized them onto the environment and our future." 👌

[@felipedidio4698]

Sand is taken for granite

[@thewoodsarecalling8382]

Thank you

[@FutureSystem738]

@@thewoodsarecalling8382😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣

[@KendallBPT]

‘THIS ISNT GRAIN SURGERY’ !! Underrated joke

[@TheBestFanGirlEver]

I’m a mining engineer and I throughly enjoyed your video. Spot on with the transportation being a key factor in cost and market.

[@olke85]

Hei Grady, so good to see where your channel is heading, what it has become. And most of all, that you kept your integrity. Pure facts and science. Thank you.

[@NABracing]

you only add enough water to make it workable.... i delivered concrete for 10 years, workable means self leveling. i wouldnt buy a property in a sky scraper these days, the concrete is poured so wet its insane legit 7-10 inch slumps on the regular. no one wants to rake it out

[@coomsz]

It's a bit different these days with all the admixtures and things they can do with it. At a 7"-8" slump, 3 of my 4 most recent 2-day breaks came in at just over 5000 psi which was the 28-day acceptance strength. The fourth was around 4700 psi which was still way higher than the 3500 psi needed to stress PT tendons. That being said, not all concrete suppliers have the same quality, and not all contractors and inspectors have the same integrity so YMMV.

[@joeo6378]

"Most glected materials" 😂😂

[@noscopesallowed8128]

Oh I thought he said collected

[@JM-mz1zj]

Well, it’s not grain surgery

[@rasmis]

I paused the video to appreciate that! There is no reason why unpaired word should remain single. Let's sipidly coin some pairs.

[@nozrep]

@@rasmistrue

[@RacingSlow]

I really hope not, I like sand castles.

[@mustachesamurai]

I once went to a sand castle contest. The mix the contestants used was available for observers to try out. The demonstrator was able to make a bowling ball sized sphere and hand it to me. That stuff has some amazing properties that let the contestants do some really fun architecture.

[@1a1u0g9t4s2u]

While working in material testing facility I learned lots about soil/sand and concrete. Then later when working at an engineering firm I heard that Saudi Arabia imports sand needed for making concrete. Then before I retired and working in Saudi Arabia I was able to confirm that yes Saudi Arabia imports sand used for making concrete for the reasons mentioned in your video, wind blown sand is too rounded while imported sand has edges. Thanks for refreshing all the things I have learned over the years though out my career. Thanks for sharing.

[@tulmar4548]

I was in the desert around Dubai. The sand was super fine and kinda like mini ball bearings. Couldn't imagine it has many purposes.

[@midwinter78]

I'm reminded of a time when a blogger once called something "about as likely as a sand shortage in Saudi Arabia" and the commenters said "well, actually..."

[@xoso599]

Sand running out is like oil running out. Once the price raises high enough new sources become viable to extract, and eventually synthetic production from more foundational materials becomes possible.

[@cherriberri8373]

Exactly. However, these new sources are always more costly- that's why we chose to abuse the environment to cut costs- and the costs just get handed down to the consumer every time, but Sand is needed for modern life while oil is not.

[@KenFullman]

@@cherriberri8373 Oil is more essential than sand for modern life. So much of the material we use in every day life is totally synthesised from oil that, erradicating it would set us back centuries.

[@nathanialbenton7385]

@@cherriberri8373 While we could use vastly less by applying already-developed fuel efficiency measures and pruning petrochemicals in areas that have almost-competitive substitutes, modern life still needs oil because there's quite a lot of applications reliant on the energy-density and the incredibly long list of uses for long-chain hydrocarbons include things like the physical composition of wind turbines and the starting point of most pharmaceutical production.

[@anonihme5142]

and more rivers/mountains/beaches/seafloors are destroyed

[@xoso599]

@@anonihme5142 Calm down, don't get hysterical.

[@borissand3891]

0:28 Gold Coast jumpscare

[@ns6-novarb1]

Tf you mean “jump scare”?

[@boio_]

fr

[@hiangus25]

this got a chuckle out of me

[@loganh2876]

“This isn’t grain surgery” This is why I subscribed to you Grady

[@CanoeBoi]

I've seen a short showing concrete floors being made with plastic baloons inside them. The short mentionned benefits in material costs, environmental costs (recycled plastic was used), weight and strenght. I'd love to see you cover this!

[@anonnymousperson]

5:42 - ...this isn't grain surgery. Lol.

[@TS_Mind_Swept]

CURSES! I was gonna say that..

[@advanceringnewholder]

He's a dad after all

[@calfeggs]

taken for granite

[@MrMoon-hy6pn]

“Hammering the point home” “grain surgery” “one of the most glected materials”, there are so many puns it’s almost aggregating

[@feynthefallen]

It is however, rock science.

[@jasonremy1627]

I'm going to start using the word glected from now on.

[@ABaumstumpf]

Helped my brother in law last year. They wanted some foundations for their raised beds. The first sign that it wouldn't be fun: He bought 10 bags of concrete cause he thought that would be more than enough. And as it is only 10 bags - no need for a concrete mixer - do everything by hand. Told him to lay out the bags where they wanted the raised beds cause that was just about how much we needed... it was over 4x more. Then when we started working he started with the mixing. I asked about the ratio as it was a fixed finished mix: "Just so it looks right". I simply read what was written in larger bold letters. Turns out: when you follow the instructions you get a nice workable mix. Not so dry that it is crumbly, not so wet that it runs away, easy to get the bubbles out and compact and also takes a nice smooth surface very well. With other concrete projects i have seen it mostly was similar. Gravel and sand for the mix? "Just take the cheapest". How much water? "If it is dry just add a bucket" That is the difference between a driveway starting crumbling from frost and under load in just 5 years, or lasting decades.

[@dannysvorc]

To me this just shows the importance of proper education. So many other channels doing hours long essays and analyses of the future sand wars from what they researched on the internet and a one guy who actually knows what he's talking about puts them all to shame in a 20 minute video. This is why I love this channel.

[@dougpetersen7285]

I am so glad that you made this video. It seems like media outlets skew narratives like this based on very few or no legitimate original sources and reaearch. This is a great example of that. I had basically accepted that narrative without much question, so it's good to hear another perspecive.

[@Nagria2112]

as a chemist this definition confuses me because i see sand as Silicondioxid (SiO2) and not as "any ground rock" f.e. Granit sand should have different properties compared to SiO2 sand?

[@sandponics]

In a broad geological context, "sand" refers to a particle size range (typically 0.0625 mm to 2 mm) rather than a specific chemical composition. This can include various minerals and rock fragments, not just silicon dioxide. Silica sand, also known as quartz sand, is specifically composed of silicon dioxide (SiO2). It's this type of sand that most closely aligns with the chemist's definition you're familiar with. Silica sand must contain at least 95% SiO2 and less than 0.6% iron oxide to be classified as such. Regular sand can have a much more varied composition. Silica sand is known for its hardness (7 on the Mohs scale) and chemical stability It's resistant to most chemicals and doesn't react with them. Due to its purity and properties, silica sand is preferred for industrial applications like glass-making, foundry work, and high-tech applications. You're correct that granite sand would have different properties compared to pure silica sand: Granite is composed of multiple minerals, including quartz, feldspar, and mica. While granite sand may contain a significant amount of silica, it's not pure SiO2 and may have different chemical and physical properties which affect it's reactivity.

[@Gr0nal]

I can sleep at night now this question has been answered.

[@italktoomuch6442]

So the next time you're walking on the beach, enjoying an hourglass, or making cheap low grade windshields, think where we'd be without... sand!

[@GalootWrangler]

Trade you some for a little zinc.

[@Tom89194]

Plasticizers can help with workability without the need for additional water. One of the guys I deal with operates a small plant making decorative facing stone for buildings. His biggest issue is having the mix fluid enough to fill the mold properly on the shaker table but if he adds too much water the brown dye (a iron oxide) changes from brown to pink due to some chemistry happening with higher water contents. He was recently over the moon about a new plasticizer that gets him his workability with less risk of the plasticizer affecting the concrete mix strength character(since he has to demold and transport the stone)

[@ericlotze7724]

One bit I’m intrigued by (in terms of manufactured sand) would be Glassy Carbon (vitreous carbon) It can be made from hydrocarbons (Fossil OR Bio / Power-to-X) so could be less location dependent + potentially less extractive! Main bit would be cost+complexity, but i think it has potential (Also Carbon Composite Rebar and Carbon Fiber Reinforced Concrete!)

[@OrangutanSquash]

“This is grain surgery.” Nice. 😂

[@meganbaer11]

Sand is definitely the goat of crushed rocks

[@dosmastrify]

Some of it is crushed by goats too

[@RFC3514]

1:13 - You look a lot hairier from behind.

[@iamtheonenonly250]

Gold 😂

[@rom5457]

Lmao

[@jeremyolson6419]

You mentioned rock crushers , one thing I learned a while ago that surprised me it by far the most efficient part of breaking rocks up is where they are first separated from the larger rock formation with explosives. After that, most of the mills and crushers we use have an efficiency of less than 1%, this is mostly down to reliability concerns, because it turns out pulling several tons of material out of a ball mill is not enjoyable.

[@foshed_tv]

I’ve been fan of the channel for years now, thanks for the consistent quality uploads and explaining the world around us. The beard is a good look too.

[@rhouser1280]

I heard that & thought, there’s HUGE deserts out there, how can we run out?

[@sandponics]

The round grains make them unsuitable.

[@johndennis3181]

Please tell me where I can get one of them microscopes you used a 1:37

[@pedrocx486]

AliExpress

[@bartsanders1553]

13:35 Like baking, not like bacon like I thought at first. I'm ill today.😂

[@dobbltA]

😂

[@KenFullman]

I heard it the same. You're not ill, just hungry. And now, so am I. Unfortunately I'm typing this at nearly midnight and if I start cooking bacon the entire family will get out of bed and want bacon.

[@Watchyn_Yarwood]

Same!

[@paulmlemay]

You are a super teacher Grady. This is probably the tenth video of yours I have watched and I love learning what I can

[@randomxgen6167]

0:12 Honestly I'd still be here. If you had released a youtube short titled "Is the world really running out of sand?" or something similar, I probably still would've clicked. Even if it only said "The answer might surprise you, because it's no. But also because it's complicated."

[@MichaelSteeves]

I was watching this week's video from Diesel creek. Matt reminds me of Grady. Matt was pouring concrete walls and talking workability, then he was putting down rock for a laydown area that was made from recycled concrete. Different viewpoints of the same materials!

[@paradox...]

1:50 *SAND IS SAND*

[@cherriberri8373]

Sand(material) is at least 85% sand(soil grain size). Does it make more sense now?