h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.h2g2.com/A458318

The guide to building sandcastles, containing general principles, advanced forms and detailed blow-by-blow instructions on making the humble sand pie.

Heh - fun.

Consequences of building sandcastles - perfectly tanned back, and white belly. Good for pretending to be a dolphin.
Sand everywhere. Almost as bad as burying oneself in the sand. Incidentally, you might want to link to that entry, as a related form of sandplay. Are there other sand-related entries?

You don't seem to mention freeform building, which takes place without bucket or spade. I tend to use arms and suchlike to shape - this requires heavier sand, though.

Methods of repelling the tide are many and varied - the important trick is to not build walls at right angles to the incoming water, but in something of a V shape. That guides the water off to one side, and onto some other poor saps castle. The same can be done with trenches - they are more effective at guiding the water, but erode faster. Best is probably to use a wall to change the direction to start with (the hardest bit) and a trench for the bit towards the edge.

Trenches and Walls coming together, though, makes collapse much more likely. Beware of walls being 'undercut' by the water.

Dig too deep, and you'll find the water table. This will not prove good for your castle's long term stability at all. Worse than black sand...

Decoration: pieces of shells and suchlike can be added to make the thing look prettier. This has the side effect of being likely to attract attention from sisters/mothers, who may then be persuaded to help.

That's all I can think of atm

Thanks, Lucinda. I've put some of that into the Entry.

Another method of decoration-if you have enough sea shells spell your name out.

You seemed to have missed out the Damn.

Most beaches have streams running down them to the sea, which present ideal damning opportunities:
Core 1ft high damn sections, stone lined overflows, long side trenchs linking to other pools or castles (see you entry), etc

the ability to reshape the beach with well timed floods, create pools for small children to play in...

ohh the hours of fun...

*)

I've put a small paragraph about streams into the Entry. The subject of recreational dam-building is probably enough for an Entry of its own.

I've also acknowledged Norman's and Lucinda's contributions.

I have been building splodge sandcastles since I was five - 22 years ago, and managed to produce a very tall (almost 1 metre) spire using just this method, so I suggest you alter your invention date!



- Adam

I've amended the section about Splodge Castles and put an acknowledgement to Doctor Wonky Mungbean at the end.

I enjoyed your article enormously. It brought back some wonderful memories - especially the bit about protecting your sandcastle against marauders. The best method I ever witnessed was a kid who, fed up with this other kid charging down the beach and kicking his castles over, took the precaution of first filling the centre of the next one with pebbles. Next time his enemy charged full-tilt down the beach and kicked his castle, the poor little brat was nearly crippled.

Ah, happy days.

... And you weren't the only one who enjoyed it, Shorn Canary.

Indeed, Gnomon, you'll be pleased to know everyone who matters thinks this article is great, and that leaves no one any choice but to include it in the Edited Guide. It may not be today, and probably not tomorrow. It may even be a week or two. But eventually, you too will know the glory of seeing your entry basking in the light of the front page, and thence in the guide.

All we can hope for is that you keep up this fine production. Cheers!

Prez

Editorial Note: This thread has been moved out of the Peer Review forum because this entry has now been recommended for the Edited Guide.

Congratulations!

Thank you!