Scientist Explains How to Levitate Objects With Sound | WIRED

Believe it or not, levitating objects aren't just the stuff of science fiction and magic shows. There are actually many different forms of levitation including something called acoustic levitation, which uses powerful sound waves to trap objects in mid-air. WIRED spoke with a physicist at Argonne National Laboratory to find out how acoustic levitation works and what it's used for.


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[tkgsg]

So all Vader was doing was shouting at different frequencies. Noice.

[gnaneshwaar]

I guess people who are more interested in acoustic Levitation, there are ancient gigantic structures(temples) in India which used this method to construct temples. Do a little digging you'll understand.

[Prdigy]

Man I swear we had an ancient civilization that used this kind of technology. With electromagnetic and sound power or something. It’s really crazy to think about.

[blurryface]

I'm surprised why this doesn't have millions of views. Wow. This is so amazing

[BigblackDavis]

Could it be that some insects vibrate their wings at the frequency that is needed to levitate their bodies off the ground similar to how these beads are floating?

[gregaaron]

How to levitate small objects and annoy every dog within a 1 mile radius

[Jason-rlgf]

Ancient civilizations on the other side are laughing at how we are levitating beads.

[grim_bbx]

Whats cool about sound waves is they can levitate tiny fragile molecules or you can use the vibrations to cut straight thru solid rock.

[KosmoGamesKill]

if you wonder why you cant hear anything on video. Its due to the audio encoding, which are optimized for human hearing and will delete the very high and low specrums for efficient encoding. Also your headphones might not support these frequencies, or your hearing has already deterioated to not be able to hear 22kHz anymore.

[NightRunner]

I love the way it visualizes the harmonic hotspots in the path of the sound. That's pretty slick. I'd love to see that with something dusty, like powdered sugar or flour.

[charlesellis]

In order to levitate larger objects it takes a combination of frequencies that depends on the scale and the size and mass of the object

[justinakers]

I don’t think any of us know yet, but I think we’re looking at a partial answer of the UFO phenomenon

[avishdjae]

In very ancient India, this technique was used to lift blocks to build temples. Search it on google.

[hili]

What i want to know is, does the weight of the levitated object transfer. Like, if the transducer is on a scale, and you add the bead, does the scale register the bead or is it blind? If you were doing magnetic levitation the weight would transfer

[Kayla-dmnr]

Idk, for some reason I feel like the ancient Egyptians and ancients in general definitely knew about this and used it to help them move large objects to build the pyramids and other monuments.

[freddierogers]

I’ve seen a bowling ball levitated in one experiment using ultra high frequencies Hutchinson Effects

[stevendaniels]

What we could do, however, is build sidewalk structure that produces a levitation effect in an object of the right material, in the form of a hover board. Maybe just some sort of aggregate in the concrete that encoverages reflection of sound or electricity/magnetism. We are just around the corner.

[aakashwow]

This was already written in the hindu scriptures in hinduism there was a great significance for sound(vibrations). When the saints, sages meditate their breath drops naturally it can drop to 3 - 6 breaths per minute that is when they can hear infrasonic and ultrasonic sounds they can also feel the vibrations. That is how the hindu scriptures have many things about the universe. Because they can feel the vibrations. Tibetian monks also used very big instruments to levitate objects.that is how the saints and sages levitate with producing a certain frequency of vibration in their body

[strong]

Humans exposed to strong vibrations, unaware.

[scrubmeclean]

If we place the sound levitation system on a scale, turn it on, and then place an object in the spot such that the object floats between the two transducers, does the weight of the object get added to the scale?