![]() Usually one step is a warning and you can scurry out of the way. Or often it's on the banks where water is suspended in the sand. Quicksand usually occurs with flowing water and can be hard to see at all. I consider the two to be usually, but not always, different things. Image credit: Quicksand Warning sign by Solipsist and the unfortunate event by The Man in Question via Wikimedia Commons.There's quicksand and then there's stagnant pools with silt mud like the photo above. So even if that happened he will not be completely submerged and most probably he will come out alive.īut, my friend frankly no one has ever been that unfortunate and unlucky.or else.you can tell that person that this is definitely not Africa's fault and that he should do something about it !?!?! ![]() "Someone coming to Africa for the first time and he managed to find a pit of quicksand and sank in it and a vigorous earthquake happened" By shaking they caused the water to rise thus re-liquefying the sand and the ball they made another ball with lower density than that of the quicksand (just like the human body), the ball didn't sink to bottom even after vigorous shaking.(3).įrom (1), (2) and (3) you will realize that no man can actually sink completely into the quicksand even if your friend shook the earth around you instead of helping you out. Scientists studying quicksand made an artificial quicksand pit in their laboratory and they made an aluminum ball of a very high density (over that of quicksand) and placed it over the sand but it didn't reach the bottom except after shaking the pit. The human body's density is less than that of the quicksand.(1)įrom (1) → if the victim stands still he will most probably float, that is correct.(2) Third fact.quicksand can't swallow someone completely !!! Thus, the scenes with victim acting like swimming in a pool are not possible.don't you love physics !!! Because you will need a very strong suction force to pull the water from the underground to come up and replace the space that was occupied by the leg, and as there is no air coming down (remember we are talking about a gel). In case of quicksand a study proved that the force needed to pull one leg out of quicksand equals to the force needed to lift a medium sized car "just to remove one leg". If the victim attempt to rise his leg upwards to try and escape -According to the laws of physics- as he elevates his leg the space below should be occupied by air or water for his leg to move up. So the sand can -sort of- dissolve and form the gel. However, in the desert one can find quicksand near natural wells or near shallow underground water. That is why quicksand is more around lakes, forests, river valleys or beaches. Thus logically quicksand needs water to develop. So, now imaging this sand completely soaked in water and the grains are no longer in contact with one another.now the sand loses this solid feeling and turns into some sort of "gel". So the sand particles can still move against each other causing friction and this tightness and friction gives the sand its solid feeling. The sand that we move on is solid because the air or water molecules intervening are not enough to completely surround each grain of sand. Naturally, the sand is formed of small rough grains that are intervened with air or water molecules. This is the first well known mistake "quicksand is found in the desert".Wrong. That is why I need to clear out some well know mistakes about quicksand.įirst fact.the quicksand is rarely found in the desert !!! After being halve the way there and their bodies are submerged to their chest, someone starts talking (do not ask me why they didn't talk before !) and they start advising the victim not to move at all and that if he struggles he will only sink deeper.Īfrica is rich with quicksand, thus anyone thinking of visiting Africa might be thinking of this problem. In these movies, the victims are usually lost in the desert and can't find water or people and suddenly they start their journey to the center of the earth. I guess the movie writers and the directors felt scared of the idea of quicksand and they felt obligated to warn people about it and try to give tips of how to save themselves.but unfortunately most of their information and advises are just their imagination and are not entirely correct !?!?! When I was a kid I remember watching these movies with people sinking in the sand.
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