
Floating Under a Levitating Liquid - bookofjoe
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2643-8.epdf?sharing_token=yTk6lTlqDGIs_PGThH9cjNRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0MwZOxupaqM4-XdEa58MnIMnociJCpeFT74qmZpdkBfQsOEGacWBuJVGlK7x2n_V2ehIOOuhUHiCEoP4j_3xphjnOTN6LST0krmG5xsfE_2rXlaiaDxdQV-qUMozmzmKfDcqEMtdt-xQrQM9qxlKA2zSgS8-UAADNlZezqqT5uG2emSLeMYk_FhrvuQRWaWPeo_htSnjzE62PMXq0JcbPvZdxWuYLXf2V-aJU3EZwHeteTuPaFfQ8Ymk_3X9vN3-fNvtn8bOWUyi3m3MvxM7SBdy0YTssfv-3uYr8wWGbAngw2yThpmrTDEFfsdFkUpWD8%3D&tracking_referrer=www.theguardian.com
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vanderZwan
There's a video of those little boats on YT:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bodsuTucSxQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bodsuTucSxQ)

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ta1234567890
Amazing video, thanks for sharing.

Now imagine a round/spherical version of that liquid band, but instead of
getting the vibration from outside (the glass walls), the vibration is coming
from inside, and you pretty much have a model for Earth and an alternative
model for gravity.

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ben_w
Does this alternate model do anything useful, or have you just done a Fourier
transform on a graph of the inverse square law?

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ta1234567890
Great question. What does the Fourier transform on a graph of the inverse
square law look like? Would love a link if you have one.

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ben_w
[https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=fft%281%2Fx%5E2%29](https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=fft%281%2Fx%5E2%29)

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ta1234567890
Thank you, that was fast! Looks linear when != 0, I would have expected it to
be an oscillating function, if it's meant to model the effect of the vibration
on the liquid.

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myself248
I can only imagine the giggles in the lab when they got the little sailboat-
shaped one to float. What a spectacular "go get the folks in the lab next
door, they gotta see this" moment.

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dvh
Imagine a planet with a liquid ocean-skin lifted up by constant earthquakes
underneath, and two species each on their side of the ocean.

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teraflop
Reminds me of Gregory Benford's short story "A Dance to Strange Musics", which
features a levitating ocean held up by immense electrostatic forces.

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TeaDude
One day I hope we can get this tech large scale enough to recreate the bath
scene from space madness. Maybe we could even use waves to remotely oscillate
the water so you don't need a large enclosed chamber (Although that probably
wouldn't be very good for your body)

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bitwize
Ohh, my beloved ice cream bar, how I love to leeck your creamy center!

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exmadscientist
As someone who's lost far too much of their life to figures for scientific
papers, I'd just like to say that the figures in this paper are _absolutely
fantastic_. Save this one in your "good examples" folder!

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ta1234567890
In the next few decades, I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing all kinds
of crazy applications of vibration. There might be a physics and engineering
revolution coming.

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ecesena
How's the environment inside the liquid? I'm curious, for example, if you
could have a fish living in levitating water?

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kencausey
I'm judging from the video another comment above posted. But it seems to me,
that if the vessel is at or close to atmospheric pressure that from most
measures it should be unchanged.

The gas below the 'floating' liquid is at an increased pressure due to the
weight of the liquid, and the gas above my be at a somewhat reduced pressure.
But since the floating liquid has reached a stable point the pressure in the
liquid should be much the same as it would be in normal conditions relative to
the local atmospheric pressure. I can't imagine how shaking would affect that
signficantly.

Regarding the shaking, anything in the liquid should receive a significantly
dampened shaking and would likely acclimate.

This is at best armchair theorization on my part of course.

