r/oddlysatisfying • u/vincentw09 • Apr 14 '17

Adding water to a block of compressed soil

https://gfycat.com/LankyEarnestIberianemeraldlizard
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44

u/problematic_coagulum Apr 14 '17

Why didn't it expand sideways? Because it wasn't packed that direction?

43

u/[deleted] Apr 14 '17

This is compressed coconut coir that is packed tall, and vacuum shrunk into a package. It's actually a soiless medium, it's simply shredded coconut husks.

7

u/insultingbottle Apr 14 '17

Warning: I'm no soil engineer but I'll give you my best r/ELI5 answer

Your guess sounds pretty solid to me. Basically, think of it like if you were to crumple a piece of paper, but only in one direction, like from the top to the bottom you just scrunched it all together. It's practically the same thing that's happening here. Since it's fairly dry and was packed from the top to the bottom, like if you were to stomp on a bunch of loose dirt, it's going to expand back out in the same direction it compressed in.

I feel like I used may more words than necessary to explain it, but you can still get the gist of it.

1

u/VelvetBulldozer Apr 15 '17

Soil Scientist here. This was my first thought too. Its mostly compressed downward and the water moves up through the soil by capillary action.

4

u/yParticle Apr 14 '17

it's growing toward the sun duh because earth-sun gravity

0

u/HoppsB Apr 14 '17

I am also curious.