Kat’s Geeky Friday Find – Water Stands Still [VIDEO]

I have and always will be the "Geeky Chick." Sometimes I run across something that really brings out my Inner Geek in full force! I actually get giddy with excitement! This is one of those times!

I came across this video of a really cool science experiment of sorts. The basic premise is that if you siphon water through a tube with the tube running across a speaker, and you tune that speaker to a specific frequency while shooting video of the whole set-up it will create an illusion that the water coming out of the tube is standing still. Confused? Try this explanation:

Fill a bucket full of water and place it about 5 feet off the ground. Place a subwoofer about 1 foot lower than the bucket. Run a plastic tube from the top bucket down in front of the subwoofer. Tape the tube to the front of the speaker. Then aim the end of the tube to an empty bucket on the floor. Get the water flowing from the top bucket. Now just generate a 24 hz sine wave and set your camera to 24 fps and watch the magic happen. Basically your cameras frame rate is synced up with the rate of the vibrations of the water so it appears to be frozen or still. Now if you play a 23 hz sine wave your frame rate will be off just a little compared to the sine wave causing the water to "move backward" or so as it appears. You can play a 25 hz sine wave and cause the water to move slowly foward.

What all of that mumbo-jumbo equates to is one really awesome viral video that makes water A) look like it's sstanding still & B) makes it look like it's flowing backwards. Just watch...