this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2024
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Data is Beautiful

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Sources: Elhacham et al. (2020), Hackney et al. (2021), UNEP (2022)

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Humanity consumes 18 kilograms of sand per person per day

Since I started following a low-sand diet I now consume at most a few spoonfuls per day (mostly during breakfast). Every little thing counts.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

Since the graphic claims microchips are made out of "sand", I will call silica "sand". To get a spoon full of "sand", some random internet sources suggests that it would weigh about 33g, and apparently oats is quite dense in "sand", so youd need about 176 kg of oats, or about 27,000 spoonfulls of oats to satisfy your diet of "sand". Impressive!

(Or maybe you just eat it raw as a anti-caking agent?)

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)

spoonful

anything but the metric system

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I was using a metric tablespoon for my calculations (15ml)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

using volumes for dry powders is unacceptable

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It’s okayish if they’re really dry.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

But for small amounts, particle size and container shape can have an effect, no?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Container shape is important for small amounts and error from particle size scales linearly with the amount.

If we’re talking cooking flours, particle size tends to be somewhat uniform, and container shape don’t make much of a difference, humidity being the heavy hitter when it comes to density variation.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Best thing to make out of sand is triangles or hexagons that can perform collaborative energy transactions, like bees.