Water Levitates On Air, Can someone explain?

Ran across this video and it shows water more or less trapped in space hovering. If you flick the water it comes back into the formation? put it in the cup and it pulls it out of the cup? No explanation on video was wondering what this is?

Suspended Water




(MOD EDIT: to correct spelling in thread title.)

[edit on 2/26/2008 by benevolent tyrant]

reply to post by 4204peace


It looks like a strobe light to me.

reply to post by lifestudent


Yep 100% sure that's strobe lighting. Pretty effective though, the water is dropped at a steady rate hence the different stages of the fall the drops appear the same shape ~ giving the illusion that it is the same drop.

To be honest it would look better on video than in real life I would think. The people in the background are either a bit thick or playing up for the camera.

Originally posted by Now_Then
reply to post by lifestudent

 

Yep 100% sure that's strobe lighting. Pretty effective though, the water is dropped at a steady rate hence the different stages of the fall the drops appear the same shape ~ giving the illusion that it is the same drop.

To be honest it would look better on video than in real life I would think. The people in the background are either a bit thick or playing up for the camera.

So a strobe light that makes seperate water drops that look like something made in CGI? How did he get the drops so perfect with a strobe light? I don't buy that completely... sorry...

reply to post by 4204peace


So long as you can adjust the frequency of the strobe flashes you can 'tune' it to make the drops appear stationary.

Here is a you tube I found of a stroboscopic effect with a fan - the fan is obviously spinning, but the camera shutter speed almost matches the RPM of the fan - hence the fan appears stationary, just like the drops of water.



See?

Edit: this one is better - it seems like it defies gravity, all because the frame rate syncs up with the frequency of the spinning.



[edit on 26/2/2008 by Now_Then]

Yes its hard to believe without seeing something similar in person but its true. Its a strobe light, They have a very similar set up at the Museum of Science in Boston, MA. Notice how the drops tend to move up and down, that is because it is capturing the water at different moments as they fall. To the normal eye it looks like a stream of pouring water. Cool stuff though.

Yep you're right! I found this video titled, strobe light and water..

video

[edit on 26-2-2008 by 4204peace]

reply to post by 4204peace


Interesting. Although, it doesn't really look as neat as your original posted video. Hmmm... looks remarkably like a magicians parlour trick to me...

J.

Originally posted by jimbo999
reply to post by 4204peace

 

Interesting. Although, it doesn't really look as neat as your original posted video. Hmmm... looks remarkably like a magicians parlour trick to me...

J.

Ya nothing special with the water trick... Looks cool though.. If the strobe light wasn't so loud it might be something nice to have in your living room for decoration or something...

But ya it's not as clear as the first, but I think it's the same idea... Probably the darker the room the more clear the effect is I'd imagine... Also notice in the first video when he goes in between the drops of water how his pencil gets wet...

Oh well guys sorry I thought I found something revolutionary... Just a trick... ahh...

This is the most amazing demonstration of this concept I've ever found:



If that doesn't make your eyes pop, I don't know what will.

reply to post by watch_the_rocks


What in the world is happening with the choppa? That's strobe lights? How did they set that up? Where the lights on the choppa or on the ground?

I believe it is the camera that is taping with a strobe "effect"... Im not an expert.. but it's more likely a framerate thing than an actual strobe light flashing at the helicopter

It's simply the frame rate of the camera.
If a rotor blade takes 1/30 of a second to complete a full revolution, and the camera is set to capture 30 images a second, then the rotor will appear completely stationary.

It's the same concept for strobe lights. In fact, in high-speed photography, the shutter of the camera is left completely open, and a high-intensity burst of light is used instead to make the image register on the film, as the shutter cannot move fast enough to prevent the object from blurring.

It all has to do with hertz and framerates.