Sand piles harden as water makes links
Inside a pile of wet sand, water molecules may slowly build bridges that cause grains to stick more tightly together with time.
Bocquet, L., et al. 1998. Moisture-induced ageing in granular media and the kinetics of capillary condensation. Nature 396(Dec. 24/31):735.
Further Readings:
1995. How sand piles pull their own weight. Science News 148(Aug. 19):127.
Peterson, I. 1997. Dry sand, wet sand. Science News 152(Sept. 20):186.
Sources:
Lydéric Bocquet
École Normale Superieure de Lyon
Laboratoire de Physique
46, allee d’Italie
69364 Lyon Cedex 07
FranceJacob N. Israelachvili
University of California, Santa Barbara
College of Engineering
Santa Barbara, CA 93106Peter E. Schiffer
University of Notre Dame
Department of Physics
185 Nieuwland Science
Notre Dame, IN 46556
From Science News, Vol. 155, No. 1, January 2, 1999, p. 6. Copyright © 1999 by Science Service.
copyright 1999 ScienceService