Beach Mass
What mass of sand grains would have a total surface area equal to 1mm of a cube edge? ?
Grains of fine California beach sand are approximately spheres with an average radius of 56 μ m and are made of silicon dioxide. A solid cube of silicon dioxide with a volume of 1.00 m3 has a mass of 2600 kg. What mass of small sand grains would have a total surface area (the total area of all individual spheres) equal to the surface area of a cube 1.00 m on an edge?
Figure out the area of one grain.
Divide the area of the block by the area of one grain, to get the number of grains.
Figure out the volume of one grain.
Find the mass of one grain by multiplying the volume times the density.
Multiply the number of grains by the mass per grain to get total mass.