Imagine hopping onto a large floatie in a lake or pool, and then trying to move.
Weve all been therewithout paddling limbs, wind-catching sails, or a propelling engine, youre stuck.
But what if we could make the water itself move you?
Researchers developed a wave manipulation technique to precisely move floating objects.© NTUsg
The water manipulation technique is driven by waves.
They even noted that small external waves did not greatly disturb the pattern and object movement.
Despite appearances, the researchers arent waterbendersits all grounded in physics.
Yijie is an optical engineer, and the recent study was inspired by his research on light patterns.
Weve shown that water waves can be used to precisely move floating objects as small as rice grains.
On a molecular scale, this technique could bring particles together without direct manipulation.
Could this technique also move liquids within water?
Similar water manipulation techniques might help clean up floating chemical pollutants.
Correction: An earlier version of this story mistakenly claimed that the researchers moved grains of rice.
In reality they moved floating objects as small as grains of rice.
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