Magic Water Levitation

Based on Hydrodynamic Levitation

Ali Shtarbanov (MIT Media Lab)

On one corner of "The Magic Room" you see something so amazingly interesting that your curiosity is sparked right away. It is a device with 5 water fountains, where the first is completely sealed behind an acrylic sheet and the remaining four are freely accessible. However, on top of the one that is sealed, you see something completely unbelievable. There is a ball levitating on top of the water jet kept in place only by the water.

You also notice that next to the exposed water fountains, there are also balls of the same kind. You immediately want to try to make one of those balls levitate. After a few tries you succeed and you are absolutely amazed by your new capabilities of making things levitate. Wow! Your friends are also impressed by you, and they even plan to invite you to perform magic tricks for them now.

Now that you have mastered the skill, you try with the remaining balls, and you succeed in getting them all to levitate.

But now what? Nothing seems to be happening. One of you looks at the lit-up serpentine line on the wall, looks down on the control wheels, and has the brilliant idea of turning the wheels to try to make the ball heights match to the serpentine line. You try turning the first one to the left until the leftmost ball is appropriately aligned.

Then you proceed and turn the remaining four accordingly until everything is aligned

As your trophy, now you get to witness one of the most amazing spectacles. The water flow is dynamically adjusted automatically, which causes the balls to start dancing in the air, while you are enjoying this magical viewing experience.

AUTORESET MECHANISM: One group resets the system for the next group. After the group leaves, the flow of water is temporarily stoped for the 4 streams on the right to allow for the balls to drop to the floor. Then water-flow is resumed. The jets still forn the S shaped profile. But now when the next group arrives, thyou would have to make all the balls be horizontal. The ball of the left remains levitating in the water at all times. No one has access to that ball, they can only increase or decrease its height by a small amount.