The WALKING WATER Mystery (in SPACE and SLOW MOTION!) - Smarter Every Day 160

Wow, just wow.

Scott Gartner

Well that was worth my 5 dollar pledge... and all the previous pledges.

James Earle

I literally laughed with joy watching the droplets react to the cello music. Thanks for sharing your excitement and your view of the world. It resonates strongly with me (no pun intended).

no, I work for JSC. But, at that time I was working on some new hardware for the SRMS and I went down to the Cape to help install and test it on Atlantis. And since it communicated with the cockpit, I got to go in there! Atlantis remains my favorite bird. :)

Frank nice busy suit. Did you work at KSC?

SciJoy

I watched this last night before going to bed. Just mesmerizing!

very cool!

Salgood Sam

That Is indeed a beautiful video, Destin. Five years in the making, and worth the wait! Kudos on the Phantom.

Kristy

dood! Don Petit!!!! Again!!! :)

"Something about the cello". I used to play the cello, I have played that particular piece (first movement from Bach's Cello Suite #1 in G) and know it pretty well. With the running quick notes (i.e. most of the music), I couldn't pick up any obvious patterns -- the audio and visual changes were just too quick. However, in the last several seconds, the music slows way down, and I think I can explain (in musical terms, at least) what I see in the video. Actually, the pattern starts in the "stretto" section of the piece (about 10:30 in the video). I noticed that there is a marked increase in the rippling of the inner bubble when the cellist is playing the open D string, and that rippling goes away on the other notes in that passage. "Open" means that the cellist is playing a note without pressing a left-hand finger down on the fingerboard. The difference becomes much easier to pick up with the eye as the music slows down at 10:46. The low note at that point is an open G, and is accompanied by significant excitation of that inner layer. Then, when the cellist moves to the last note (actually, two notes played at the same time, called a double-stop) at 10:47, the rippling of the inner bubble almost ceases. At this point, the cellist is playing two notes, both of which require depressing strings using the left hand. One tiny little thing I noticed on that last note -- the cellist is using a little vibrato on them. That is, he or she is moving the two depressed-on-the-fingerboard fingers back and forth slightly to cause a slight wavering of the pitch. It's called vibrato, and is very commonly used by virtually every kind of classical instrumentalist (where the construction instrument will allow it...pianos can't play vibrato, for example). If I extrapolate that knowledge back into the stretto section, I notice that the notes played by pressing a finger down on the fingerboard tend not to excite the inner bubble much, if at all, but the notes played on open strings do. There are a number of factors at work here, but my guess is that the notes from the open strings are producing a fuller, more complex sine wave (with all the harmonics) than the fingered notes. To test this, I'd have to get out my cello, and find (and learn to use) an oscilloscope, which is a little beyond my abilities (the oscilloscope part, that is). Love your stuff, Destin. If you want to talk about this, drop me a line at db14@beamerfamily.net David

David A Beamer

Our goal is to have a science garage like that! Awesome video.

SciJoy