Scientists Bend Liquid With Power Of Light

Scientists bend liquid with power of light

newsinfo.inquirer.net

CHICAGO -- A group of scientists have found a way to bend and direct liquid using only the force of light, according to a study that will be published Friday.

The French and American physicists used a laser beam to produce a surprisingly long and steady jet of soapy liquid that was narrower than a human hair. When directed at a different angle, it pushed the liquid into a hump-like shape.

The discovery was made by accident while University of Chicago professor, Wendy Zhang, was visiting colleagues at the University of Bordeaux.

(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 28-3-2007 by searching_for_truth]

I am not good in science, but I think that this can be a very important discovery.

It was discovered by accident.

newsinfo.inquirer.net
(visit the link for the full news article)

That it could be. The thing here is that we know now that light is not what we used to believe it was just a wave, then a particle, then a wave particle. Light must have some sort of mass in order to move this mass of water. Definately can be used somehow...

If it is a particle then focusing it or narrowing and widening the flow of the particles would change things like the frequency and create friction. Id it temperature that that expands the space between the water molecules on one side while retaining a cooler temperature on the other side that "bends" the stream of water? Elongating one side of a cylendar would force it to curve.

What could come of this? Either something great like the microvave and space travel or something stupid like the Segway. Either way its neat for sure.

I dont see this being that big of a deal, the light they used was from a laser meaning it is a highly concentrated power source and what most likely caused the liquid to bend was nothing more than energy.

Very cool stuff. I wonder if we can get some official docs and whitepapers from the University. It would also be nice if there was a video.

Very cool stuff.

Originally posted by AlphaAnuOmega
That it could be. The thing here is that we know now that light is not what we used to believe it was just a wave, then a particle, then a wave particle. Light must have some sort of mass in order to move this mass of water. Definately can be used somehow...

It has momentum. I don't think the idea of light moving something was the big deal here, it was the fact that a reasonably small amount of it produced a visible result in a flow of liquid that size, even though it's a pretty unusual liquid.

If you liked that story, you'll love these:

Optical manipulation of matter:

focus.aps.org...
fy.chalmers.se...

Light sails:

solarsail.jpl.nasa.gov...

Yeah, light has no mass to speak of, at least not enough to account for this anomaly(or even detect which is why they say Photons are massless). It's the Radiation Pressure that does it, and is the basic principal behind such things as the Solar Sail.

I started a thread on this topic yesterday.

Here is the link

Here is a really in-depth explanation.

Or you can ignore the nice math and just look at the photos.

Enjoy!

jfi.uchicago.edu...

I'm not a super scientist, or a super mathematician, but this just doesn't add up.

The article on space.com given by kleverone (in his thread) describes radiation pressure from light (produced by the sun) being so slight that it can only effect space dust particles of intermediate size. By intermediate, the author says, he means about half a micron...i quote -

"For intermediate sizes (about one-half of a micron in diameter), the effect of radiation pressure is stronger than the gravitational pull of the sun," Landgraf said. "These particles are therefore effectively repelled by the sun."

Source

Now these scientists are saying they could make movement from "soapy water" made from soap and oil - by using a laser? Well it's either one hell of a powerful laser or something is amiss here. I can garauntee you that their "soapy" liquid is larger then a half a micron. Even wikipedia states -

A solar sail at the distance where the equivalent radiation temperature is the boiling point of water could thus achieve about 22 µPa, or nearly 13 lbf/sq mi. Such feeble pressures are, nevertheless, able to produce marked effects upon minute particles like gas ions and electrons, and are important in the theory of electron emission from the Sun, of cometary material, and so on

Source

13 footpounds per square MILE. Relatively speaking - this is absolutely nothing. So these guys discovered how to move a moderately heavy substance (meaning alot more mass then half a micron) move by using light amplified by stimulated emissions of radiation?

Well I also happen to know quite abit about LASERs - and as far as i know one of the most powerful lasers out there is powered by the element Nd:YAG (neodymium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet; Nd:Y3Al5O12) (alot of Military Class 4 Lasers use Nd:Yag - it is invisible to the naked eye - IE being infrared)

I quote from wikipedia

Infrared and ultraviolet lasers are particularly hazardous, since the body's protective "blink reflex" response only operates if the light is visible. For example, some people exposed to high power Nd:YAG laser emitting invisible 1064 nm radiation, may not feel pain or notice immediate damage to their eye sight. A pop or click noise emanating from the eyeball may be the only indication that retinal damaged has occurred i.e. the retina was heated to over 100 °C resulting in localised explosive boiling accompanied by the immediate creation of a permanent blind spot [3].

Source

Right. Pretty simple laser safety stuff. How does this relate to the radiation pressure?

Well wikipedia stated that -

A. A solar sail at the distance where the equivalent radiation temperature is the boiling point of water could thus achieve about 22 µPa, or nearly 13 lbf/sq mi.
- Equivalent radiation temperature @ the boiling point of water. That's roughly equivalent to 100 degrees C, correct? It was stated earlier that the Nd:YAG Laser could burn your eyes at over 100 C. This resultant equivalency in heat leads me to believe that the equation stated above equaling 13 foot pounds per square mile is acurate.

What does this mean? It means how in the hell did those scientists move that liquid when its mass is a whole lot higher than one half micron?
(remember that the burning of the eye is due to the HEAT, not the radiation pressure).

Is anybody else seeing this contradiction? What I'd like to know is what kind of SUPER laser did those scientist use to make that "soapy" liquid move - orrrr is our sciene not what we thought it was?

yes yes! Light all powerful, and Im not just talking about physical light either, we humans have only begun to scratch the surface of the kinds of things light can do.

I firmly believe there will come a time when all we will need is natural light to survive and thrive. Just my lil theory.

Originally posted by AlphaAnuOmega
That it could be. The thing here is that we know now that light is not what we used to believe it was just a wave, then a particle, then a wave particle. Light must have some sort of mass in order to move this mass of water. Definately can be used somehow...

No. Light does not have mass. Light is composed of photons, which posses momentum and energy, but not mass. Momentum can exist with out mass.

Light is not physical - you can't put it in a jar and save it for later.

Here is the original White paper on this subject

Liquid Transport Due to Light Scattering

Using experiments and theory, we show that light scattering by inhomogeneities in the index of refraction of a fluid can drive a large-scale flow. The experiment uses a near-critical, phase-separated liquid, which experiences large fluctuations in its index of refraction. A laser beam traversing the liquid produces a large-scale deformation of the interface and can cause a liquid jet to form. We demonstrate that the deformation is produced by a scattering-induced flow by obtaining good agreements between the measured deformations and those calculated assuming this mechanism.

Fluid dynamics is a big thing at the moment.

We have made a droplet of water run uphill using the Leidenfrost effect...

Self-Propelled Leidenfrost Droplets

Physicists have made water run uphill quite literally under its own steam.

The droplets propel themselves over metal sheets scored with a carefully designed array of grooves.

The US scientists did the experiment to demonstrate how the random motion of water molecules in hot steam could be channelled into a directed force.
Source: - BBC NEWS

Learn more about the Leidenfrost effect here...

Boiling and the Leidenfrost Effect

Here is a vid of the drop moving..

Droplet moving Uphill Slow-motion
Credit for this vid goes to: - Amanda Stout, Corey Dow-Hygelund, Benji Aleman, and Zeb Schweickert.

To learn more about this go here...

Self-Propelled Liquid Droplets

We also have this..

What is Ferro-Fluid?









Want to fabricate some Ferro Fluid???

Here is how…

How to Make Liquid Magnets

Preparation and Properties of an Aqueous Ferrofluid

Be careful with this stuff though it is corrosive

All the best,

NeoN HaZe.

[edit on 29-3-2007 by Neon Haze]

WoW! Thats some super cool stuff. Its amazing how much control they have over that fluid. I can only imagine what kind of practical applications this could be used for. Other than just looking kick ass.

Great posts! Never seen anything like that before that wasn't CGI.

Originally posted by damajikninja
WoW!

Thats some super cool stuff. Its amazing how much control they have over that fluid. I can only imagine what kind of practical applications this could be used for. Other than just looking kick ass.

Great posts! Never seen anything like that before that wasn't CGI.

This tech has quite a few applications review the link below for an understanding of the usefulness of Ferro Fluids.

Ferrotec Technology Overview

All the best,

NeoN HaZe.

This is another development to keep our eyes on.

I am not of the persuasion pressure has anything to do with it, at least not in the Newtonian sense. There is some form of energy transferrence, this much appears so. I am going with ionization and close packing of molecules for now.