Sand Castle Holds Up A Car! - Mechanically Stabilized Earth
Why Hacker News recommends it
Often named as a great first video from Practical Engineering and as the explanation of reinforced earth.
What it is
Practical Engineering explains Mechanically Stabilized Earth, where layers of reinforcement make soil strong enough to hold heavy loads, shown with a sand structure supporting a car. It notes that MSE walls are everywhere in infrastructure.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2016 to 2026.
What Hacker News said
Recommends cwkoss · 2018-08 · on “Cargo ships that sink when their cargo suddenly liquefies”
I wonder if sheets of a cloth-like material could be used in loading similar to Mechanically Stabilized Earth Practical Engineering has a great video on this simple but pervasive technology. [this video]
Recommends davidwf · 2021-01 · on “Ask HN: What YouTube channels do you subscribe to?”
I keep a Google Document of these to share just in case people ask about my YouTube interests. I Actually Watched All of Them I have actually watched ALL of the videos on these channels and I don’t even feel bad about it :-) I actually like new videos from some of the ones below (like NativLang, for example) but they maybe don’t hold up in the early videos. - Space Time: PBS Physics, sooo good -- [LINK] -- Great first video: [LINK] - Lindsay Ellis: Really, really intelligent video essays about film and culture -- [LINK] -- Great First Video: [LINK] - Periodic Videos: Chemistry, including a video for every element -- [LINK] -- Great first video (obviously): [LINK] Other Math and Science - 3Bl
Cites steamer25 · 2016-11 · on “The Most Effective Weapon on the Modern Battlefield Is Concrete”
Reminds me of reinforced earth which I learned about from this video: [this video] (which is also from the pretty great Practical Engineering channel).
Cites afarrell · 2017-04 · on “Ask HN: How do you unwind at the end of a day?”
Ooooh, these are nice. Here are mine: Extra History: stories of historical incidents — [LINK] Real Engineering: mostly materials science — [LINK] - Wendover Productions — mostly transportation - [LINK] Tom Scott: a bit of everything — [LINK] - Jay foreman: Urban planning and maps — [LINK] The Engineer Guy: Manufacturing — [LINK] Practical Engineering: Mostly Civil Engineering — [this video] 3Blue1Brown: Math, visualized to me more intuitive — [LINK]
Cites hourago · 2023-04 · on “The Ancient Architecture That Defies Earthquakes”
It reminds me of the video "Sand Castle Holds Up A Car! - Mechanically Stabilized Earth" - [this video]
Cites milesvp · 2026-08 · on “The Grid That Doubles the Strength of the Ground”
I was suprised to see the use of wiremesh in sand castle building some years ago. Same concept though. You add something that helps with shear strength and you can build much taller sand buildings. It’s really counter intuitive to see too, since the sand could clearly sieve through the mesh. Ha! just looked up the video, seems it’s another practical engineering video I was thinking of [this video]