Controlling sand with sound waves
Unless you travel into the vacuum of space, sound is all around you every day. But most of the time, you probably don't think of it as a physical presence. You hear sounds; you don't touch them.
The animation shows how sand gets hit by sound waves.
Watch video:
Three-Dimensional Mid-Air Acoustic Manipulation [Acoustic Levitation] (2013-)
In some ways, granular material — such as a pile of sand — can behave much like a crystal, with its close-packed grains mimicking the precise, orderly arrangement of crystalline atoms. Researchers at MIT have pushed that similarity to a new limit last year, creating two-dimensional arrays of micrograins that can funnel acoustic waves, much as specially designed crystals can control the passage of light or other waves.
These findings could lead to a new way of controlling frequencies in electronic devices such as cellphones, but with components that are only a fraction the size of those currently used for that function. On a larger scale, it could lead to new types of blast-shielding material for use in combat or by public-safety personnel or equipment.
More about this:
http://www.physnews.com/nano-physics-news/cluster652154967/
More about how acoustic levitation works:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/acoustic-levitation.htm
My friend Baltazar Canales, in Houston, TX introduced me to this a while back.
ReplyDeleteI just love these experiments. I could sit all day and watch =)
ReplyDeleteI'm descended from the Knight of my namesake, who once said "The greater the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of ignorance". I know how you feel. :)
ReplyDeleteKiril Minanov I wont debate again about the guns ethics. One more time and for the last time..Guns do not kill people, people kill people!! Even the internet can "kill" you.
ReplyDeleteSo is all about how we choose to use what we invent/create.
Before people were killing people with guns they were doing it with knives, and stones, and blunt objects. Why aren't any of those things in question?? Couldn't agree more Corina Marinescu. Plus I live in Texas. :)
ReplyDeleteguns are a highly enabling technology. Make it very easy to kill people. Nuclear weaponry doesn't kill people - people kill people
ReplyDeleteJohn Said The right training makes it very easy to kill people too, should we also outlaw self-defense? Make hands, feet, knees, elbows illegal??
ReplyDeleteZane Newton The usage of tools designed specifically to kill people is something i think should be regulated.
ReplyDeleteJohn Said It's not currently regulated...?
ReplyDeleteI don't agree with myself either in a perfect world =)
ReplyDeleteBut this is not a perfect world! Kiril Minanov
Levitation all the way :)
ReplyDeleteThree-Dimensional Mid-Air Acoustic Manipulation [Acoustic Levitation] (2013-)
Ha! I like it! =) Jeff G
ReplyDeleteI hope some day we can use similar ways to create 3D floating objects, like this inFORM - Interacting With a Dynamic Shape Display , which currently uses pin-art-like needles (still, quite cool, you might want to make a gif and describe it, too).
ReplyDeleteI think has been describe it by some people here on G+, Mindey I.
ReplyDeleteBut was nice to watch it again =)