Must see: Tibetan singing bowls levitate water

Denis Terwagne of the University of Liège in Belgium and John Bush, a mathematician at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have come up with quite an interesting finding concerning a ceremonial instrument used by generations of Tibetans.

When you rub the edge of a Tibetan singing bowl, which is usually used for meditation, one can make the implements vibrate at a certain frequency, which is responsible for emitting their characteristic sound. When Terwagne and Bush filled the bowls wiith water, they recorded how the motion of sound waves at certain frequencies can also generate flying droplets. Depending on the amount of vibration, they were able to make the droplets skip across the water's surface or even bounce up and down. You can find a copy of their study in the journal Nonlinearity.

[RogerInHawaii]

This has absolutely nothing to do with levitation. It has long been known that droplets of water can skim across the surface of water. It has to do with the surface tension of the water. There's absolutely nothing miraculous or unusual happening here.

[RogerInHawaii]

This has absolutely nothing to do with levitation. It has long been known that droplets of water can skim across the surface of water. It has to do with the surface tension of the water. There's absolutely nothing miraculous or unusual happening here.

[lilbear925]

Very interesting. Obviously the resonant frequency of the bowl and water is a major part of the phenomenon.

[mrmxltplk]

It has been long thought that sound may be the missing part of the solution to antigravity.

[RogerInHawaii]

Whoever has been thinking that for a long time ought to find something better to think about. No one in his right mind, and certainly no one who knows anything about gravity, has ever though that sound could be anything like a "missing part" to the "solution" to antigravity.