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Liquid Time Machine Freezes Drops Mid Fall

cre.ations.net — Nate True has developed yet another impressive hack using UV strobe lights, luminescent-dyed water, and a timer to create the illusion of water stopping in the air, slowing down the splashes into the pool beneath, and even travelling upward. You have to see it to believe it.

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  • whisk3rs, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11Nice vid, but the circuit diagram is a bit hard to see

    "Some other components (resistors, capacitors)" - heh, not very specific. If anyone wants to build one, http://www.epanorama.net/schematic.php?file=schematicsforfree/Lights/Strobe%20Lights.pdf for a pdf of handwritten strobe schematics.
    • trogdoor, on 10/12/2007, -14/+4http://duggmirror.com
    • disillusioned, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Dugg Mirror has the older video code. He's using YouTube to better deal with bandwidth and availability now, but in theory, the site should scale properly.
    • brickballs, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1took me a few tries to get the site, so here's an up to date mirror: http://brickballs.net/44.htm
    • Whitey04, on 10/12/2007, -37/+6OMG a strobe light. Wow. High tech.
    • ElectricGrandpa, on 10/12/2007, -4/+26"OMG a strobe light. Wow. High tech."

      A UV Strobe light that syncs up with when the water drops fall... It's not about the pieces that make it up, but the actual idea, and the result. Most things are comprised of simple parts. I think someone's just jealous...
    • Eaglefire, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Sorry about the dugging guys. I put up a low-bandwidth gateway page with just the Youtube vid to stem the tide of the unwashed. You can still click through and see it in full glory, since not everyone will click through.
    • brickballs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2the crowd's moved on, my mirror is gone..
    • Whitey04, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2@ElectricGrandpa

      You don't have to sync anything up. If you make the drips happen at a constant rate (by setting the size and shape of the opening) you just way the frequency of the strobe up and down until you make it still, move up, down, control speed, etc.

      It is the way old fashioned oscilloscopes have worked for 50 years. Not to mention the plethora of kids science TV shows which use some experiment with a strobe light.

      No digg.
  • LucasVB, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13Saw this on MAKE today, ingenious and a great effect.
    • f3l1x, on 10/12/2007, -0/+28Indeed. The sad thing is if I make one I'd just mess with it all day and get nothing done. This needs to be a gadget to buy on thinkgeek.
    • Amplix, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6f3l1x speaks the truth!
    • theRIAA, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2i would pay $40 for somthing a little bigger than that
  • TechnoGuyRob, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6Now I can make more careful and fancy artwork in the snow!
  • Sc00t, on 10/12/2007, -0/+37The Boston Museum of Science had something like this for a long time. The setup was behind glass and you could adjust the strobe.. Even make it look like it's going in reverse. It was near their wave machine. I haven't been there in years so I have no idea if it's still there.
    • skifreak107, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Indeed it is still there, and its still awesome.
    • BigPapi, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3The wave machine kicked ass.
    • cmiz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I was just about to say that I've seen this at the Museum of Science before. They also had one at the Aquarium in Boston for awhile too. That one didn't have glass in front of it though so you could actually touch the water and see that it was still flowing normally... really neat to see how to make them though!
    • angrydroid, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1"What makes an ocean wave wave? The Boston Museum of Science. Where it's fun to find out. "
    • jabelar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The Exploratorium in San Fran has (or did have) this for years too. It was an oil drop I think.
    • dr3d, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2We were doing this exact same strobe and freeze-the-droplets of glowing water thing right beside the beer keg at frat parties in the 70s. *yawn*
  • disillusioned, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13I was just telling Nate he could market this and sell a larger scale one to a science center, or a smaller scale one to ThinkGeek.

    Good times...
  • robertgilbert86, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18Another machine he's made:
    http://cre.ations.net/creation/31

    Not as revolutionary, but still cool, nice vid too
    • f3l1x, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12Bwahaha! why is that funny to me? I think I was taking it too seriously considering the first video.
    • dralezero, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5@f3l1x
      yea i think its silly too. lol look at this greatmachine i built. BEEP! crash! BEEP!
    • f3l1x, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12I think I will have to make "T-Rex'd" part of my informal vocabulary.
    • Siriuskr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6didn't you hear, Jeff got T-rex'd the other day, it was crazy !
  • KSUdesigner, on 10/12/2007, -20/+2Saw it, but still don't believe it...
  • Tabclear, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18I seen this in several science museums around the world. There has been one in you can touch and play woth in WonderWorks, International Drive, Orlando for years. Reverse it, stop it etc....
    • ho0ber, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Why dig Tabclear down? I've seen several as well where you can adjust the strobe and everything.

      That doesn't make this any less neat, by any means... it just makes it not-so-groundbreaking. He did an amazing job with this one.
  • adamkmccarthy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4quite a bit of head scratching and time spent putting it all together. very impressive.
    • avatarpalin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13The right shampoo can fix that..

    • Eaglefire, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5And conditioner.

      Never forget the conditioner.
  • synaesthesia, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15I'm surprised they dont have a few of these behind glass in nightclubs...people smoking pot or doing ecstasy would be mind-blown by it and the amount of people showing up to see the 'trippy displays' would probably pay for it's installation after only a few weekends.
  • rtilford, on 10/12/2007, -16/+3how does the word hack fit into this?
  • pred8tr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3This is awesome! This kinda of Geek-genuity is always worth taking a minute to look at. This dudes site is definately worth a look! He has some other awesome projects there as well.
  • retsel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7if that was on thinkgeek i would buy it asap
  • ChileanGoD, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8Sorry for the meaningless comment... but this is FREAKEN AWESOME.
  • noneloud, on 10/12/2007, -12/+1Makes you wonder how flawed our concept of time is.
    • candiru, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9it does?
    • f3l1x, on 10/12/2007, -11/+1actualy... not so far fetched concept of time.

      We cant go back in (our) time we know this (I figure the world would be REAL effed up now if anyone ever figures it out in the future). what you can do though is wait (freeze yourself) until 5 minutes ago happens again. warning. this may be a while.. but it will/should happen. decrease the "Strobe" and end up 1 year ago in an exact snenario etc.
    • walterd93, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8wait until "5 minutes ago happens again"!? WTF
    • noGoodNamesLeft, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5What's really going to screw with your head is that the theory of relativity states that in two different frames of reference (i.e. "points of view") that are moving uniformly relative to each other, it's possible that two separate events can be observed occurring in different orders.

      Since relativity states that there is no single "correct" fixed viewpoint, either order is "correct" when viewed from the appropriate frame of reference.

      The only reason this doesn't mess up cause and effect is that this can only happen when there is *no possibility of one event having caused the other*; that is, such that the time/distance between them is too far for light (and hence anything slower) to have travelled quickly enough to "cause" the second event.

      Umm... I think I need someone who know physics better than me to confirm that I expressed that correctly. :)

    • noneloud, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Yeah. At least to me it does. It shows that when events repeat in time, the fame of refrence in which time follows speeds up. I know it was just an illusion, but I think it's a good example how we may think we're moving forward, but we're really just standing still in every frame of our life.

      Thanks for burying me though?
  • tgelston, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I read the comments before watching and thought - I have def. seen this in a science museum or two. . then I watched the video and when he is playing with the drops - that is slick as anything!!
  • sungam3D, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4"These things can get very bright. Unfortunately since we're strobing them they will never blind you." - LOL!

    Unfortunately? sounds likes this device is just a conspiracy to make us all blind!!!!
  • Zippo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Incredible... my mind says WTF, but my eyes say awesome!
  • Suaves, on 10/12/2007, -18/+1This is nothing amazing. It can be done with a normal commercial strobe and a water tap.

    My school set this experiment up in about 5 mins when I was 17. It does look pretty cool but soooo old.
    • ElectricGrandpa, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Yes, but his actually syncs up to the timing of the water drops... RTFA
    • Suaves, on 10/12/2007, -8/+3Yes of course it syncs with the water droplets, but then so can a commercial strobe. It's one of the most basic experiments/demos that you can do, especially at school physics labs. Did no-one get educated here??
  • Kailash.Nadh, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3Amazing.
  • Krutch, on 10/12/2007, -12/+5Digg me down if you wish. I watched the video and I am still not impressed. Yes the amount of work he put into the project deserves some attention but the project itself does not. Strobe lights have been used to create time illusions for many years now.
  • reversial, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4There's one of these at the end of MIT's "strobe alley". Good times.
  • strcmp, on 10/12/2007, -11/+7What? This isn't about incremental backups in Leopard?
    • bass0, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2feeling sarcastic today, aren't we? ;)

      i would've buried you were it not for the fact that you actually have a point there, with all the apple wwdc euphoria going on today.
  • aclelland, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1My science teacher made something very similar to this a few years ago. It would be cool if I these were on sale somewhere :)
  • mandolinsrock, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6You can also do it with a ceiling fan in a dark room with a normal strobe. Reverse, stop, everything.

    • Krutch, on 10/12/2007, -10/+4like I said, strobe light time illusions have been done many ways, many times for many years. Why is everyone getting excited?
    • f3l1x, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@krutch. true.. but maybe its the UV persistence or the fact that the video exaggerated persistence.. this looks less "strobey" than what I am used to.
  • otwist, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Does anyone know what music is playing in the background?
    • Eaglefire, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Rimsky-Korsakov, Sheherazade and Capriccio espa, Movement 2, The Kalendar Prince.
  • bass0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5B-E-A-utiful!

    can it be used to research hydrodynamics? actually, i wonder what would happen if you illuminated a more complex water flux with this, like a (miniature) waterfall. could be useful in amusement parks.
  • bertilak, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1Sorry, dup comment
  • corkster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The music he uses matches so well with video, it's freaky. Anyone willing to try this on a muchlarger scale?
  • jellygraph, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1wow, mucho cool, nice one
  • LoganKriete, on 10/12/2007, -10/+5Don't know if someone mentioned this yet (digg me down if so), but we've got one of those over at MIT in Cambridge (near Boston) in Strobe Alley (building 4, floor 4 for those of you who don't know). And actually, not to be pretentious, but there's two of them!
  • TSugar, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1I'm strong enough in physics to DUGG it with all my heart ! Pretty and smart. Got saves intelligence...
  • theoallardyce, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Chaos in action - when he was parting the drops with a screw-driver the way the water splashed was exactly the same each cycle, right down to each little ridge and droplet on the edge of the splash (within reason), thats so cool and a great way to explain cause/effect, chaos theory etc.
  • ThirdPrize, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I'll take two.
  • sleazy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5He went out of his way to purchase special dye for this. In college, we used to take common highlighters and break them open and use the dye from them. We'd fill up bottles with the stuff and they'd glow under a blacklight.
    • dontera, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3Im college we used highlighter water for our homemade bong, called it the "Atomic Bong".. I drank that water after several months of use.. I dont think that was a good idea.
    • duster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I don't know if it's that good of an idea to even inhale smoke that's been filtered through that water.
  • zarex, on 10/12/2007, -13/+6Um, the Boston Museum of Science has had this on display since *the early 1970's*. This is HARDLY a new idea.
  • scoho, on 10/12/2007, -12/+3Two minutes of my life I'll never get back...
  • TheEyebright, on 10/12/2007, -4/+10What? No one on digg has ever peed to a strobe light?

    High School pastimes, ladies and gentlemen.
  • ReaperUnreal, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Wow, well I know what I'm doing tonight! That's an incredible effect.
  • chubbymidget, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3That is the coolest thing I've seen in a long time.

    Great Digg
  • corbanbrook, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I want a sink like this!
  • dmitry, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I'm sure this has been mentioned before, but this isn't something he invented or developed; the inventor of strobe lights first did this experiment himself. This cool illusion has been around for at least fifty years.

    This is still some cool *****.
  • heydigital, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2That is great! Sell your idea so it can be mass marketed (thinkgeek?) and sold to us who want one!
  • rooneyet, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1digg effect
  • mcottier, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Can someone tell me the classical song playing?
  • marymaier, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This isn't exactly new. I saw this a few years ago at a science museum somewhere.
  • bill.clark, on 10/12/2007, -5/+4Oh come on! This has been on a display at the Boston Museum of Science for over 15 years now! This is not "new" by any stretch of the word.
    • cdmarcus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3You're right. I still would want one of my own, though.
    • Suaves, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0This has been on display at my school for about 8 years. It's so basic to set up.
    • porkstacker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3While you may be correct, I had never seen this before, and am glad someone posted the link. It's not like the poster put up a link to the goatse guy or the hamsterdance.

      WRCKA

      -he who stacks pork
  • swordedge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Science Fair material. This thing is cool.
  • huggie, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Where I work we have a printer that is calibrated in a similar fashion, only you adjust the drop rate rather than the strobe.

    http://www.imaje.com/umbrella/us/us-us/index.cfm?page=/umbrella/home/by_product/s7_postal_series
  • scifi007, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1Already saw this ten years ago at the Natural History Museum in D.C. No digg.
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