5 ms·

My question is would this be possible with a strobe light? Or even better, a florescent light? That would make some very impressive shows, if you could have a w

by yathern 15y ago

My question is would this be possible with a strobe light? Or even better, a florescent light? That would make some very impressive shows, if you could have a whole hallway with different streams, all synchronized to the frequency that the lights strobe at.

weavejester 15y ago
That's an interesting idea, and it should be possible with a strobe. A florescent light oscillates too quickly though; the gap between the water droplets is going to be inversely proportionate to the frequency of the sine wave.
omegant 15y ago
I've done it in an almos empty disco, with some strobes and a cord with a key(or any other weight) at the end. I turned around the key (like using a sling). Playing a bit is pretty easy to make the key stop in the air like pointing in the direction you choose. Also you can see the effect in some videos of flying helicopters, they seem to be flying with the rotor freezed. It is Pretty cool!
albertsun 15y ago
I've seen it at a children's science museum, forget which one. They had a dark box you could look into with some kind of strobe which produced this effect in the box.
tcas 15y ago
There's an exhibit at the Boston Aquarium that is exactly this with a strobe light. It's really cool to see in person.
DanBC 15y ago
(http://hackaday.com/2011/03/11/water-droplet-sculpture-using-leds-and-arduino/ http://hackaday.com/2011/03/11/water-droplet-sculpture-using...) There are plenty on YouTube. It is an amazing illusion. I find it hard to understand how "a drop" seems to stay the same shape. I need to think a bit more about that.
- jfoutz 15y ago
  think about an old tire rolling through paint. you'll see the same artifacts every revolution of the tire. the key idea is every cycle creates the same pattern. so, you could have a mechanical system that hit the tube every /24th of a second, and you'd get some effect, but i think it would be hard to get the impact and recovery to be EXACTLY the same, or close enough you don't notice. If you use sound to squeeze the tube, rather than pushing on it, the distortion and recovery are much more consistent, so you get the same pattern. I'd guess you don't have much control over where the drops actually appear. you'd have to wiggle the tube around on the speaker to get the right distortion.
- eternalban 15y ago
  It's a 'standing wave'.

by yathern 15y ago

weavejester 15y ago

That's an interesting idea, and it should be possible with a strobe. A florescent light oscillates too quickly though; the gap between the water droplets is going to be inversely proportionate to the frequency of the sine wave.

omegant 15y ago

I've done it in an almos empty disco, with some strobes and a cord with a key(or any other weight) at the end. I turned around the key (like using a sling). Playing a bit is pretty easy to make the key stop in the air like pointing in the direction you choose. Also you can see the effect in some videos of flying helicopters, they seem to be flying with the rotor freezed. It is Pretty cool!

albertsun 15y ago

I've seen it at a children's science museum, forget which one. They had a dark box you could look into with some kind of strobe which produced this effect in the box.

tcas 15y ago

There's an exhibit at the Boston Aquarium that is exactly this with a strobe light. It's really cool to see in person.

DanBC 15y ago

(http://hackaday.com/2011/03/11/water-droplet-sculpture-using-leds-and-arduino/ http://hackaday.com/2011/03/11/water-droplet-sculpture-using...) There are plenty on YouTube. It is an amazing illusion. I find it hard to understand how "a drop" seems to stay the same shape. I need to think a bit more about that.

jfoutz 15y ago
think about an old tire rolling through paint. you'll see the same artifacts every revolution of the tire. the key idea is every cycle creates the same pattern. so, you could have a mechanical system that hit the tube every /24th of a second, and you'd get some effect, but i think it would be hard to get the impact and recovery to be EXACTLY the same, or close enough you don't notice. If you use sound to squeeze the tube, rather than pushing on it, the distortion and recovery are much more consistent, so you get the same pattern. I'd guess you don't have much control over where the drops actually appear. you'd have to wiggle the tube around on the speaker to get the right distortion.
eternalban 15y ago
It's a 'standing wave'.