The Australian National University physicists have developed a water tractor beam offering an innovative method capable of confining oil spills, explaining rips at the beach or manipulating floating objects.
Professor Michael Shats led the research team. The researchers were able to control patterns of water flow using simple wave generators, helping them to move floating objects as and when they desired to.
Dr Horst Punzmann, from the Research School of Physics and Engineering
The new method enables scientists to control floating objects in a manner never possible before, very similar to sci-fi tractor beams, which draw in objects.
The research team experimented in a wave tank using a ping-pong ball and were able to determine the frequency and size of waves needed to manipulate the ball at will. Researchers Dr Hua Xia and Dr Nicolas Francois developed advanced particle tracking tools, which showed that currents were generated by the waves on the water surface.
We have figured out a way of creating waves that can force a floating object to move against the direction of the wave
Professor Michael Shats
The physicists discovered that above a specific height, these complicated 3D waves generated flow patterns on the water surface. Besides the tractor beam, other patterns can also be created using the technique, including outward flow, inward flow or a vortex-type pattern.
The researchers also worked with several kinds of plungers to generate a range of swirling flow patterns.
One of the researchers stated that there is no mathematical theory that can explain these experiments till date.
This is one of the most unresolved challenges until now, however the phenomenon can be imitated even in a bathtub. The researcher expressed surprise that this has never been described by anyone before.
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