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| Science is everywhere, and so why don't you take it with you the next time you go to the beach? A big problem with city beaches is that they are expensive as waves slowly move the sand away and it needs to be replaced.
| What to do:
Hammer in the stakes so that two of them are in the water and parallel to the shoreline, and another stake is perpendicular to the waterline. These form your starting lines. At time=zero, rapidly put down a mix of your sands on lines between the stakes. The waves will move the sands at different rates (chromatography!), and, using your clock, you can determine how fast and in which direction they are moving. Also the various colors should "sort" as they move at different rates. What does this tell you about why all the rest of the sand around you is about the same size granules?
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How fast does it move? And in which direction? Once you know the answers, you can weigh a quart of dry sand, and then make some estimates as to how many tons of sand are moving along the shore.