Bettina Levy - Tumblr Posts

Thermite is a highly combustible compound

Used in welding and military applications

It can burn at upwards of 4,000 degrees F

The ingredients to make it are as fallows

1 part powdered aluminum

3 parts iron oxide (aka rust)

This is a bad idea

Who wants to end the summer with a bang

This feels kind of like that dress that no-one could tell what colour it was! Except on this case, no one knows which way the sweater should go!

Okay, I'm actually having a hilarious Tumblr worthy story moment right now!

My mom and her friend were saying my sweater looks like it was on backwards, and I felt like it had no difference, cuz there's no tag in the back to tell me which is the front. But I turned it around anyway to see if they could tell, and they said it was better at first, but then they said a minute later, "actually, you're right, it looks the exact same". XD

Yeah, they are pretty similar.

Another thing I didn't mention in the ask was thus:

Say a culture has a word for sand: Nate. ['natɛ]

If one Nate is one grain of sand, what are Multiple Nate (Natel).

What does Natel represent? Multiple grains of sand? A pile of sand? Would they have a new word for a pile of sand? Would it be derived from Nate? Should it be considered plural? It is referring to *a* pile, but it's referring to a *pile*, which has lots of sand grains!

This kind of thing keeps me up at night.

Again, sorry for ranting.

CW: Venting then asking for opinion

I stayed up last night thinking. About what? Sand.

But not sand itself. Nono. Counting with sand.

When you count sand, you count grains of sand. Then you say it's a pile of sand. Then a dune of sand. Then it's just... sand. But there is no clear distinction between any of those counting words.

When does "grains of sand" become "a pile of sand" become "a dune of sand?"

Sand doesn't even have a plural. Think about it. You cannot refer to multiples of sand without using another words. Sands? Nope. Types of sand.

You might say it's the same as with Bison and Sheep, but those can be counted. (1 Bison, 2 Bison, 1 sheep, 354 sheep) You can't count with sand. (1 sand? 2 sand? what?)

Opinions on the subject? Sorry for ranting

Yeah, it's certainly an interesting subject. I remember hearing about this thought experiment with snowflakes instead of sand. Like how many little flakes have to fall in one particular place before you notice you have a small pile of snow? And how many flakes would you have to take away for it to *cease* being a snow pile?

I guess snow and sand are similar things. Like sand has grains, and snow has flakes. But when you have enough flakes grouped together, it just becomes... snow.