![]() But when they shook the container a bit harder, the ball descended to the bottom. When they shook it only a little, the bead stayed floating on top. At rest, the bead remained on the surface, despite aluminum's higher density.īut then scientists started shaking the container. But a piece of aluminum will float on top of quicksand until motion causes the sand to liquefy.ĭuring their study, researchers placed an aluminum bead on top of a container of laboratory-created quicksand. Aluminum, for example, has a density of about 2.7 grams per milliliter. You would descend about up to your waist, but you'd go no further.Įven objects with a higher density than quicksand will float on it-until they move. At that level of density, sinking in quicksand is impossible. But human density is only about 1 gram per milliliter. Quicksand has a density of about 2 grams per milliliter. The reason is that humans just aren't dense enough. This causes a trapped body to sink when it starts to move.īut a person moving around in quicksand will never go all the way under. At rest, quicksand thickens with time, but it remains very sensitive to small variations in stress.Īt higher stresses, quicksand liquefies very quickly, and the higher the stress the more fluid it becomes. Researchers in the Netherlands and France studied quicksand, a combination of fine sand, clay, and salt water. Real quicksand is certainly hard to get out of, but it doesn't suck people under the way it always seems to in the movies.Īccording to a study published in the current issue of the journal Nature, it is impossible for a person immersed in quicksand to be drawn completely under. You won't sink in-at least not all the way. Ask for and take the advice of rangers and locals in the know.If stumbling into quicksand ranks on your list of worries, don't panic. ![]() ![]() The best thing to do is get to know the area you plan on going to before hitting the beach with your four-wheel drive. If you’ve driven your car into quicksand, you cannot pull the car out using other vehicles. And the cowboy actually dying from having the rope around his waist,” he says.ĭaniel doesn’t know how true those stories are, but it’s a good urban legend and a cautionary tale of what can happen if you try. “There are all kinds of stories about cowboys lassoing their rope around their horse and the horse, trying to pull them out. ![]() This could severely injure you because of the sheer force needed to remove you. Or get your friends to tie a rope around you and use their truck to pull you out. You can slowly lift your legs back up to the surface and gently paddle out, as demonstrated in this Australian Academy of Science video.ĭon’t take guidance from Hollywood and get a cowboy to lasso you with a rope and use their horse to pull you out. Instead, rotate your legs in slow, small movements to reintroduce water between the sand and your legs. ![]() We are not as dense as quicksand, so we will only ever sink partway like a rubber ducky in a tub. What Daniel found is that we can never drown in quicksand. Thankfully, our iconic devil didn’t sink beneath the quicksand, never to be seen again.Īs quirky as this experiment sounds, it has real-life applications. He collected samples of quicksand in Iran and analysed what it was made from – mix of fine sand, saltwater and clay.ĭaniel then used beads and other items, including (bizarrely) a Tassie devil figurine with similar densities to humans, to check whether they would ‘drown’ in the quicksand he re-created in the lab. This was a question Dr Daniel Bonn, Professor of Physics at the University of Amsterdam, was determined to answer. Is this fear warranted? Can you really drown in quicksand? Perhaps the fear of quicksand engendered in many of us is compounded by a snake being used to pull Indiana Jones out of quicksand in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.Īlthough quicksand is no longer a go-to for films, fear around it remains. ![]()
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