Water forms floating bridge in electric field

[brian334]

So what, how does this thing make energy?

[hansvonlieven]

G'day Bep,

I think I have figured out from your description what the device is and how it works. For want of a better word I have called it an electrostatic pump. That is why the teacher needed distilled water because he needed a dielectric. It works similar to an ionic wind on a sharp point connected to a high voltage source.

I think your teacher used a Cockcroft-Walton Voltage Multiplier circuit to give him his gradient. I have drawn the circuit diagram below. This will work, though it would take a bit of fiddling about to get the anode spacings right as you say. The only thing in this that is strange is the vortex action and the viscosity change you described. This needs a bit of explaining. An interesting project.

Have fun

Hans von Lieven

[BEP]

I think your teacher used a Cockcroft-Walton Voltage Multiplier circuit to give him his gradient.

I enjoyed that class more than any other since. The poor teacher didn't have a clue. If he did he would have killed the project due to the high voltage with lethal current. No, the pure water was the idea of the kid building the pump. My project used a voltage multiplier (I was building an X-ray source) with sudden discharge.

Ha! I don't think I've thought about those days for 40 years. Gawd! I was dangerous to myself and everyone within a few hundred feet. No wonder I was only good a blowing up the lab bench

The teacher suggested we two get together and demonstrate a three-way light switch circuit. If we thought we could handle it we were allowed to show a four-way, as well 

[wizardofmars]

This is a scientific anomaly at this point

Incorrect - they have a hypothesis. Read the article:

...the group’s analyses have shown that the explanation may lie within the nature of the water’s structure. Initially, the bridge forms due to electrostatic charges on the surface of the water. The electric field then concentrates inside the water, arranging the water molecules to form a highly ordered microstructure. This microstructure remains stable, keeping the bridge intact.

The scientists reached the microstructure hypothesis after observing that the density of the water changes between the beaker edges and the center of the bridge. A microstructure consisting of an arrangement of water molecules could have a similar density variation.

Citation: Fuchs, Elmar C., Woisetschläger, Jakob, Gatterer, Karl, Maier, Eugen, Pecnik, René, Holler, Gert, and Eisenkölbl, Helmut. “The floating water bridge.” J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 40 (2007) 6112-6114.

The lead researcher gave a presentation last year which shows how the experiment was done.

http://www.bioeng.washington.edu/video/dept_seminar_presentations/SPR08/waterbridgedynamics.pdf

Note that these guys are actual scientists who document their results in detail. This is what real research looks like! Just imagine if any of the perpetual motion machine inventors in history had prepared any level of documentation like this. We'd all be enjoying free energy. 

[mastahscott]

I said electrolysis hence electric yes., They are connected by electrolysis . Very simple really ,try it. Youll see why it makes sense. Besides , what difference does it make and who really cares.

@ mastahscott,

It's not quite as simple as that. For electrolysis to occur a current must flow. Before the bridge forms there is no current flowing since the beakers are not electrically connected.

Hans von Lieven