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Water forms floating 'bridge' when exposed to high voltage

physorg.com — While it's one of the most important and abundant chemical compounds on Earth, water is still a puzzle to scientists.

Who dugg this? Made popular Sep 29, 2007

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171 Comments

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  • stklaw, on 10/16/2007, -25/+220"Don't tase me, h2o!"
  • DefaultGen, on 10/10/2007, -4/+103I was going to say something clever like "reminds me of electrolysis!" until I remembered I have no idea what electrolysis even means anymore.
  • inactive, on 10/16/2007, -13/+99I might have dugg you up if you used h2bro.
  • wettestwillie, on 10/10/2007, -9/+71Video?
  • FingersMckenzie, on 10/10/2007, -2/+49"... exposed to high voltage", you'll never see me crossing a floating water bridge!
  • jogleby, on 10/10/2007, -6/+51Reminds me of something from "The Abyss"
  • Murdats, on 10/10/2007, -7/+47WATER DOES EXPAND WHEN IT FREEZES AND LOOK AT ME BEING COOL.
    due to its relativley unique molecular structure, water gets larger when it takes solid form.
    this means that when you get lakes freezing, the top layer freezes, exands and increases the water pressure of the water below it (the layer is squeezing it downwards)
    this increase in pressure means that the water below now has a higher freezing point which means it needs to be even colder, this then means that as more water freezes, the pressure increases, increasing the freezing point of the remaining water so it becomes pretty damn hard to freeze a whole lake (and thus the fish dont die :) )
  • jimmiss, on 10/10/2007, -3/+40no
  • cyberoidx, on 10/10/2007, -0/+35why'd they digg you down? I'd like to see the video too. The pic just makes me more curious.
  • Gtitian, on 10/10/2007, -0/+33I actually thought of one maybe right away. They said the water was flowing from the anode to the cathode beaker. This could lead to some kind of more efficient pump, or filter system. The fact that it caused motivation without mechanical parts is sure to be handy somewhere along the line.
  • cyberoidx, on 10/10/2007, -0/+26And they gave you a time machine in your Introductory Physics, didn't they?
  • shortarabguy, on 10/10/2007, -1/+26They just discovered this property of water. If you have any other little bits of knowledge from your undergraduate years, I suggest you publicize them quickly, because they're news to the rest of the world.
  • Tr33fiddy, on 10/10/2007, -1/+24^^ Perfect demonstration of how to permanently brand yourself as an idiot.
  • TubbyMcGee, on 10/10/2007, -1/+24I wonder if they were to freeze the "bridge" if it would have unusual properties.
    maybe a fuel cell...
    maybe the ability to stop time... ;)
  • thexfile, on 10/10/2007, -1/+20So that's what happens when you piss on a electric fence.
  • 0crabby0, on 10/10/2007, -3/+21Electric water bed? lol
  • lcarsdeveloper, on 10/10/2007, -3/+20Will it blend?
    In Soviet Russia, water bridge floats you!
    Dupe!
    Mirror?
    Ron Paul agrees!
    Pics or it didn't happen!
    Photoshopped!!
    Awesome pic!
    Dugg!

    There, I got them all out of the way in one post, now there's no excuse for these lame comments to be posted anywhere else on this page.
  • TimFrost, on 10/10/2007, -1/+17If its in 2 separate beakers, how does it form a circuit before the bridge is there? (I'm not questioning the reliability, I'm just curious)
  • inactive, on 10/10/2007, -1/+15Profit.
  • shortarabguy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+14I think I'd believe in Christianity if they seriously tried to sell me the story of Jesus walking on an electric bridge of water, created by massive voltages of electricity.
  • GawtMilk, on 10/10/2007, -3/+16What an angry child.
  • shortarabguy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+13I'm so confused, what the hell are you talking about?
  • mollerade, on 10/10/2007, -1/+13What about travel through it, in a capsule insulated from the electrical charge? Of course to create longer bridges you'd need massive amounts of energy, but one day, when we've run out of the black gold.
  • shortarabguy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+12I'm more interested in knowing some of the scientific details, like the voltage required to illustrate this property. Are we talking 9V batteries being used in a new way, or 2000V conductors?
  • CanceledCzech, on 10/10/2007, -0/+12Maybe jet packs
    Maybe Jessica Alba
    Maybe the Loch Ness Monster.
  • keyme, on 10/10/2007, -0/+11It doesn't. The initial pull is electrostatic.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrostatics#Coulom ...
    As you see, there is a force between any 2 charges.
  • ThomasOkken, on 10/10/2007, -0/+10Not sure if Murdats is just being tongue-in-cheek here, but just in case any impressionable youngsters are getting the wrong idea: water expands when it freezes because the molecules align themselves in a way that takes up more space than the liquid form. Once the ice crystals have formed, though, further cooling does cause them to shrink, just like any other solid -- but no amount of cooling causes them to shrink to the point where the ice becomes more dense than liquid water. Hence, ice floats.
    Note that the ice does *not* increase the pressure on the water below. One ton of ice weighs the same as the ton of water that it was before it froze. What keeps the oceans from freezing solid is that the cold simply does not penetrate far enough downwards for that to happen. Also, there are ocean currents spreading the warmth from the tropics to the colder parts of the planet.
  • keyme, on 10/10/2007, -1/+11That is really interesting. For a change.
  • Influsion, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9maybe tastier ice
    a frozen magnet
    diamond cutting tool
    personal radiation deflector
    /s
  • Murdats, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9right, because lightning striking water is a rare event, that would explain why we dont hear about these parting rivers/lakes/seas every day.
  • kingvik, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9CCCCCCCombo Breaker
  • ZigVicious, on 10/10/2007, -1/+10maybe porn
    maybe more porn
    maybe even more porn.
    /stupid.
  • shortarabguy, on 10/10/2007, -1/+9Maybe donuts
    Maybe God
    Maybe a unicorn.
  • makenshi, on 10/10/2007, -2/+10It looks like behavior created by magnetic fields that would exist around high voltage electricity. I wonder if they tried this using any other liquids.
  • PieterOpie, on 10/10/2007, -5/+13Water has some truly astonishing properties which are never mentioned. It is a magic substance which will keep scientists busy for a long time to come. I can think of only one unusual property - it expands when it freezes. If it didn't there would not be any oceans; just solid ice. Don't ask me why.........
  • drizzlelicious, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7Humility has its perks
  • orca94, on 10/10/2007, -2/+9That might work, because the actual process would be efficient. However, the process of getting voltages high enough to do that would be relatively inefficient. So a regular pump would probably still work better.
  • rerun, on 10/10/2007, -1/+8Other liquids are not water.
  • chedabob, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6I was thinking some kind of badass bridge made of water.
  • Blandyman, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6I, for one, welcome our new commenting overlords.
  • fantasticjon, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6There was this lab that tried it with gasoline, I forget what the result was.
  • kn0w1, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6hrmm.. now was this pure water? or like tap water that has a bunch of stuff in it?
    pretty cool either way, but just wonderin'

    Ban dihydrogen monoxide!
  • RealmDown, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7Electrifying.
  • razorsharp84, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6chemial?
  • da_bradler, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6well water is the most important substance on earth. the substance that we believe all life derives from... most likely a good idea to figure the stuff out.
  • Vulphaestion, on 10/10/2007, -3/+8Then how come other liquids don't expand when you freeze them?
  • RubberBinder, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5I think you spelled 'Combo' wrong.
  • inactive, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6If everyone thought like you we would have no fire, wheel, or anything else.
  • whitmell, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6PICS OR IT DIDN'T HA-- oh, *****.
  • curios, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4That's one of my favourite films. One of James Camerons' finest. He's currently working on a new sci-fi film called Avatar, which i think is about a human consciousness in an alien mind in an alien world, (release date 2008), i suppose a sort of reversal of the concept of the other worldly spirit (holy) that humans speak of.
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