Why can camels walk on top of sand but humans can not?
1 Answer
Relative to their respective masses, camels have proportionally more foot area than humans.
Explanation:
Warning: None of the values I'm using are likely to be accurate; they are simply for demonstration. (I don't have a camel conveniently handy to weigh or measure its foot size).
Suppose sand can support
Suppose a man weighing
with both feet on the ground, the man's
for an average pressure of
Since this is greater than the amount of pressure sand can support,
the man will sink.
A camel weighing
With all four feet on the ground, the camel's
for an average pressure of
Since this is less than the amount of pressure sand can support,
the camel will not sink.