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Sand Castle Holds Up A Car! - Mechanically Stabilized Earth

13 videos recommended on HN
YouTube
2 HN users recommended this explainer2 months2016–2026 score 2
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Often named as a great first video from Practical Engineering and as the explanation of reinforced earth.

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.

“Practical Engineering has a great video on this simple but pervasive technology.” (HN, 2018)

2 recommendations · 4 citations · Explainers

6 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@cwkoss Aug 2018 Recommends
on HN thread 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]
Great explanation of mechanically stabilized earth, a simple pervasive technology.
@davidwf Jan 2021 Recommends
on HN thread Ask HN: What YouTube channels do you subscribe to?
Read more
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 - 3Blue1Brown: Amazing math visualizations -- [link] -- Great first video, how e^pi*i works: [link] - NumberPhile: Fun math videos -- [link] -- Great first video: [link] - PBS Eons: Biology! -- [link] -- Great first video: [link] - PBS Infinite Series: Math math math, really really hard math -- [link] -- Great first video: [link] - SciShow: Science! More poppy but fun -- [link] -- Silly first show: [link] -- Actual physics: [link] - VSauce: Science-y? -- [link] -- Great first video: [link] - Practical Engineering: -- [link] -- Great first video: [this video] Other Humanities - Alliterative: Connections via language -- [link] -- Great first video about gin and gimlets: [link] - Bon Appetit: Such fun food stuff! -- Gourmet Makes: [link] -- It’s Alive: [link] - Masaman: Genetics and human migration (an
Suggested as a great first video from the Practical Engineering channel.

Citations, criticism and jokes

@afarrell Apr 2017 Cites it
on HN thread 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]
Listed as a civil engineering channel among favorites.
@milesvp Aug 2026 Cites it
on HN thread 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]
Shows reinforcement increasing shear strength of sand.

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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