Problem set #1
Q. Question 6, according to the triangle on the problem set, 20%sand, and 26%clay, the soil texture should be classified as Silt Loam, but after I calculated the grams of Silt, I found it less than 20% of the soil, but in a standard soil texture triangle, the silt concentration of a SiL should be 80% to 90%, so I am struggling on this question, is there a mistake I made, or a misconception?
A. There are several things to consider here:
- In question 6 clay was given as 24% (not 26%).
- The textural triangle (in this question) shows clay and sand in percentages (not grams)
- Question 6d asks for calculation of silt in grams, not percentage
- The third side of the textural triangle shown in this question is not labeled for silt percentage, and it isn't the easiest type of the textural triangle to use to obtain percentage silt (another version of triangle can be found in lab #2 assignment). Hence, we did not ask for percentage of silt to be read from the triangle in question 6. And percentage of silt is 56% [ie 100- (24+20)].