this post was submitted on 24 Apr 2026
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
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- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- No politics
- If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
- A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
- Posts must be original/unique
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Thats pretty shocking to my untrained ass. I always assumed they did mass-produced sand, grinding up their own stones and stuff.
River sand is the right amount of jaggedness to where it can pour and settle into the right density in cement to have the right strength in the finished concrete. Ocean/beach sand works, too, but needs to be rinsed with fresh water, and is usually pretty valuable where it is (for beach resorts and what not).
They're testing for how to use different types of sand (desert sand, manufactured sand, recycled sand) and testing the pouring characteristics and resulting concrete strength, so that they can make reasonable decisions on when it's worth using substitutes.
Civil engineering really is just the study of concrete isn't it
No shade, just amazed I'm always nearing more about concrete lol
Yeah, one of the issues I've read about happening for concrete failures was that some construction crews are under enormous pressure to salvage concrete that had been mixed too early, or delayed in pouring, or whatever, and where the concrete pouring characteristics cause issues (or crews add unauthorized water or things to slow down curing and then alter the characteristics of the poured concrete without the engineers' awareness).
It's wildly counterintuitive to those of us who don't work in the space.
One would think, right?
I'm not remotely knowledgeable enough to say with any confidence, but:
https://www.google.com/search?q=why+are+various+types+of+sand+so+irreplaceable%3F
Note: sleepy, about to take nap. will get back to this topic...