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What if you fell into quicksand? | Curious Kids Questions · The Curious Kidcast | Fun Facts and Curious Questions

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  What if the ground beneath your feet just stopped being ground?
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  Not a hole, not a puddle, not a crack, Just ordinary looking
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  earth that suddenly decided to swallow your legs whole.
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  Today we're finding out exactly what would happen if you fell
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  into quicksand, and the truth is so surprising it'll make you
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  question everything you thought you knew about the floor.
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  Curious kid cast? Here we go.
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  Questions popping minds will blow big ideas.
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  They're taking flight. Let's explore.
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  Feel the light. What if the ground beneath your
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  feet suddenly stopped being ground and started being
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  something more like a giant bowl of cold porridge that really,
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  really didn't want to let go of your legs?
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  Would you sink forever? Would you turn into a human
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  lollipop stuck in the earth? Or would quicksand turn out to
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  be one of the most dramatic fibbers in all of nature?
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  I'm Charlie, and this is the Curious Kid cast, where we take
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  the biggest, weirdest, and most wonderfully strange questions in
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  the world and crack them open like a science egg.
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  Today's question comes from Poppy in Chicago, who started
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  wondering about quicksand after she watched an old adventure
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  film with her granddad, got completely terrified, and then
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  refused to walk in her back garden for an entire week.
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  Just in case, Poppy, this one's for you.
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  So what actually is quicksand? Well, here's the first surprise.
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  It's not some mysterious ancient evil substance cooked up by a
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  swamp villain. It's basically just sand that's
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  had way too much water added to it.
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  Normally, grains of sand press together and hold each other up
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  like a really tiny, gritty team of friends doing a group hug.
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  They grip each other, and that grip is what makes the ground
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  feel solid. But when too much water sneaks
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  in between those grains, the whole friendship falls apart.
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  The grains stop holding on, start sliding around, and
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  suddenly what looked like perfectly normal ground becomes
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  something far wobblier than anyone bargained for.
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  The sneaky part is that quicksand can look completely
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  ordinary from above. It might look like a patch of
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  wet sand on a beach, or a bit of muddy ground near a river.
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  You'd have no idea it was a trap until your foot went through it
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  and the ground said, surprise, I'm a pudding.
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  Now that moment of the floor deciding to become a liquid is
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  honestly one of nature's cheekiest moves.
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  And there are quite a few cheeky moves in nature.
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  Now here's the fact that will blow your socks off.
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  Possibly even the socks that are currently being sucked off your
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  feet by imaginary quicksand you can't actually sink all the way
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  under. That's right, all those films
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  where the hero slowly disappears beneath the surface with a
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  dramatic look on their face while their friends shout and
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  wave their arms about. That's not how it works in real
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  life. Your body is less dense than
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  quicksand, which is a fancy science way of saying you're
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  lighter for your size than the gloopy stuff around you.
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  And your lungs are full of air, which makes you even more
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  floaty, so even if your legs sink in, the rest of you tends
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  to stay up near the surface. Your chest is basically a built
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  in life jacket, which is very considerate of your chest.
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  What this means is that most people who fall into quicksand
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  would sink to about their waist, maybe their chest in a
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  particularly determined bit of quicksand, but not over their
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  head. So you'd be stuck uncomfortable,
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  probably making a face like a confused Penguin, but you
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  wouldn't vanish underground like a drop coin down the back of a
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  sofa. That is very good news for
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  everyone who enjoys being above the ground.
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  Now let's talk about what it actually feels like to be stuck.
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  Because even if you're not sinking all the way under,
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  quicksand holds on with an absolutely ridiculous amount of
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  grip. Some scientists worked out that
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  pulling your leg out of quicksand at just a tiny speed
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  could need about the same force as lifting a car.
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  A whole car, just a free one leg.
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  So if you imagine strutting dramatically out of a quicksand
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  pit like a film hero, I'm very sorry to tell you that you'd
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  actually be doing something more like a slow, struggling a very
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  unglamorous wiggle. And that's why the worst thing
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  you can do is panic. I know, I know, if the ground
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  ate your foot, panicking feels like a perfectly reasonable
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  hobby. But flailing around wildly makes
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  things worse. It disturbs all that sand and
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  water around you, and it burns through your energy faster than
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  a puppy burns through a chew toy.
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  If you were actually stuck in quicksand, the best thing you
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  could do is take a breath, stay as calm as someone who
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  definitely didn't just get their leg eaten by the floor and think
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  clearly. The clever escape move is to
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  lean back. Instead of standing upright and
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  pushing all your weight down through your trapped legs, you
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  spread your body out over a wider area.
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  This reduces the pressure on your legs and helps the
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  quicksand support you better. It's the same reason snowshoes
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  help you walk on deep snow without sinking.
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  More surface area means less sinking.
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  You're basically arguing with physics, and physics is actually
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  on your side this time, which doesn't always happen, so enjoy
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  it. Then you'd want to very slowly
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  and gently wiggle one leg at a time.
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  Not yank, not kick, not do a full interpretive dance about
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  your feelings. Just slow patience, circular
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  movements that help a bit of water creep around your legs and
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  loosen the sands grip. It sounds almost too simple, but
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  that's often how science works. The answer isn't always the
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  dramatic one. Sometimes escaping a sand
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  monster is less about heroic strength and more about politely
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  negotiating with a patch of wet ground.
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  Here's something really interesting that most people
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  don't think about. The quicksand itself usually
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  isn't even the most dangerous part of the whole situation.
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  It's where the quicksand is that makes things tricky.
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  Quicksand tends to form near rivers, beaches, tidal flats,
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  and marshes. Those are places where water
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  levels can change fast, where it can get very cold, and where you
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  might be very far from anyone who could help.
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  If someone got stuck and the tide started coming in, the real
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  problem wouldn't be the sand, it would be the water rising around
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  them while they couldn't move. So quicksand is less of an
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  underground monster and more of a very inconvenient to lay in a
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  dangerous place. That's a pretty different story
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  to the movies, isn't it? For years and years, films and
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  cartoons showed quicksand as one of the deadliest things on the
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  planet. Heroes sank in seconds, villains
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  disappeared dramatically with a final gurgle.
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  But real quicksand is slower, stranger, and much more about
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  density, buoyancy, and staying calm than it is about doom.
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  The legend grew because a person slowly sinking into the ground
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  looks terrifying, and terrifying things tend to become legends
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  very quickly. But here's what I love about
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  this. When you actually learn the
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  science, quicksand becomes fascinating instead of just
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  frightening. It's a completely ordinary
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  material, just sand and water behaving in an extraordinary
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  way. And that happens all over the
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  natural world. Some liquids get thicker when
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  you punch them, which seems very rude.
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  Some insects can walk on water without breaking the surface.
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  Some rocks are light enough to float.
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  Nature is absolutely stuffed with things that look impossible
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  until you understand the hidden rules behind them.
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  Quicksand is a perfect example of how asking one question can
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  open up a whole world of science.
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  Why does water change the way sand behaves?
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  What does density actually mean? Why does spreading your weight
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  help? Why are lungs so useful outside
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  of the obvious breathing situation?
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  Every single one of those questions is a doorway into
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  physics, chemistry, geology, and all sorts of other sciences that
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  explain how our world actually works.
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  And all of it started with someone noticing that the ground
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  was being a bit weird. And science is brilliant at
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  doing one very specific thing. It takes something scary and
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  turns it into something you understand.
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  If you suddenly found yourself sinking into quicksand and had
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  no idea what it was, it would feel like a nightmare.
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  But if you knew the science, you'd know not to panic.
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  You'd know to lean back, you'd know to move slowly, and you'd
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  know that you're very unlikely to sink all the way under.
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  Knowledge doesn't just make you smarter, it makes you braver.
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  And that, if you ask me, is the best reason of all to stay
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  curious. Right then, before we wrap up
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  this gloriously squelchy episode, it's quiz time. 3
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  questions, Multiple choice. See if you were paying
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  attention, or see if you were just here for the porridge
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  comparison at the beginning, which is also completely fine.
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  Question one. What is quicksand actually made
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  of? Is it a enchanted desert dust
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  mixed with the tears of a confused wizard, B sand and
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  water, or C blended marshmallows and secrets?
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  The answer is B Sand and water. Just ordinary sand with too much
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  water in it. No Wizards were involved, which
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  is probably for the best. Question 2.
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  If you fell into quicksand, how far would you most likely sink?
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  Is it A all the way to the earth score for a very warm and
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  unpleasant visit? B just to about your waist or
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  chest because your body is less dense than quicksand, or C
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  exactly 1 centimeter, then you'd bounce back out like a spring.
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  The answer is B just to about your waist or chest.
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  Your lungs keep you buoyant and your body simply can't sink all
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  the way down. Science saves the day again.
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  Question three What's the smartest thing to do if you're
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  stuck in quicksand? Is it A panic loudly and flap
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  your arms like a Flamingo who's just seen their own reflection?
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  B stay calm, lean back to spread your weight and wiggle your legs
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  slowly. Or C challenge the quicksand to
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  a staring competition and refuse to blink until it lets you go.
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  The answer is B Stay calm, lean back and wiggle.
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  Slowly spreading your weight reduces pressure and slow
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  movement helps water loosen the sands grip.
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  The Flamingo strategy, while entertaining to watch, is sadly
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  not recommended. Full marks if you got all three.
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  And if you got any wrong, that's brilliant too, because now you
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  know something you didn't know before, and that's the whole
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  point of being here. Thanks so much for spending time
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  with me on the Curious Kid cast today.
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  If you enjoyed this episode, it'd mean the world if you
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  shared it with a friend, a classmate, A sibling, or any
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  grown up who might secretly enjoy learning that quicksand is
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  basically an over hydrated sand pudding.
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  And don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a new episode.
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  If you've got a question you'd like answered on the show,
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  something weird, wonderful, or completely ridiculous that
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  you've been wondering about, head to curiouskidcast.com and
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  send it in. Until next time, keep wondering,
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  keep asking, and remember, the ground probably isn't trying to
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  eat you. Probably.
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  Hey, we'll let. Your questions rise.
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  Listen up to the endless skies where everyone is as far so
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  bright. Curious kid cast.