Last week we learned that loudspeakers can create water sculptures after Brusspup, an online master of optical illusion, posted a video showing a 24hz sine wave manipulating a stream of water. The effect is captured at 24fps to show water spiralling away from a hose. We can't think of a single practical application for this discovery but enjoyed the video. Hope you do too.
And you can try this home if you have a powered speaker, a water source, soft rubber hose, tone generating software and a 24 fps software.
Brusspup has provided instructions to replicate the experiment, details below:
Run the rubber hose down past the speaker so that the hose touches the speaker. Leave about 1 or 2 inches of the hose hanging past the bottom of the speaker. Secure the hose to the speaker with tape or whatever works best for you. The goal is to make sure the hose is touching the actual speaker so that when the speaker produces sound (vibrates) it will vibrate the hose.
Set up your camera and switch it to 24 fps. The higher the shutter speed the better the results. But also keep in the mind that the higher your shutter speed, the more light you need. Run an audio cable from your computer to the speaker. Set your tone generating software to 24hz and hit play.Turn on the water. Now look through the camera and watch the magic begin. If you want the water to look like it's moving backward set the frequency to 23hz. If you want to look like it's moving forward in slow motion set it to 25hz.