Sandcastle Day falls on this date in 2025. 10 things you never knew about sandcastles:
Surface tension, the force that causes Water molecules to be attracted to one another, is what makes building sandcastles possible.
The water molecules coat the grains of sand and hold them together, forming water-drop bridges in the gaps between the grains.
It’s important to get the sand:water ratio just right. Too little water and the surface tension just won’t work, too much and the water becomes a lubricant instead and makes a mushy mess. The magic ratio of sand to water is about 8 parts sand to 1 part water.
Sand castles are typically made by children for fun, but there are also sand-sculpture contests for adults in which large and complex structures are made. Between 1989 until 2009, a World Championship in Sand Sculpture was held in Harrison Hot Springs in Harrison, British Columbia, Canada. Similar contests have been held in Fort Myers, Florida, and other places, although expense and logistics often prevent all the people who could enter from taking part.
There is a sand sculpture museum in Mysore, Karnataka, India. It was inaugurated in 2014, with 150 sand sculptures on display, all of which were made by one of the big names in sand sculpture, MN Gowri. They’re not really sandcastles, though, but rather sculptures on the theme of Mysore's cultural heritage, wildlife and religion.
In south east Asia, people make pagodas out of sand, which helps them gain religious merit. They’ve been doing this since the 1500s.
There might even be sandcastles in space. NASA has sent samples of sand aboard spacecraft on three missions to study its properties in the absence of gravity, and find out whether the surface tension thing works in space as it does on Earth, and how granular mixtures morph from solid to liquid. This, NASA says, will be of benefit to many different industries from construction to food processing. Whether the astronauts would actually build castles though, is unlikely.
The record for the number of individual sandcastles built in one hour, was set at Scarborough in the summer of 2012. Four hundred people constructed 683 castles, all two feet wide and high, with four turrets.
The tallest sandcastle in the world measured 21.16 m (69 ft 5 in), and was made by Skulpturparken Blokhus in Blokhus, Denmark, on 2 July 2021. The base of the sandcastle measured over 30 m and more than 6,400 tons of sand were used to create it.
Sandcastles can be deadly, though, so beware. Making sandcastles with tunnels big enough for a person to crawl through is actually very dangerous as the sand isn’t quite stable enough to ensure it won’t collapse, especially if the tide comes in or it’s close enough to the water to get hit by a wave.
Beta
(Combat Team Series #2)
Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?
Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.
Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream.
Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.
Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.
Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.
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