Don Pettit Dancing Water VIDEO: NASA Astronaut Shows Sound Waves On ISS

Watching water droplets dance is cool, but watching water droplets rock out in space is even cooler.

NASA astronaut Donald R. Pettit does just that in a new experiment while gettin’ jiggy with it inside the International Space Station’s microgravity environment.

In a new installment of Pettit's physics-in-space video series Science off the Sphere, he splashes water droplets on top of old speakers while playing tunes from rock band ZZ Top -- the water drops bubble with every beat.

“Depending on the frequency and amplitude, you can make anything from standing ridges to a whole series of lobes,” Pettit says, describing how the sound waves shape the water’s movement.

Pettit mentions in the video that he uses low frequencies to get the water to jiggle, and then asks why would that make a difference?

Know the answer? Tell us in the comments.

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Comments

[Michael Dadtka]

07:04 PM on 05/08/2012

Answer: The higher frequencies are too high and would just shoot the water about.

[Xzavier2008]

02:10 AM on 05/08/2012

How much are these guys getting paid to sit in a mulit billion dollar space station...to play with water on a speaker? just saying....when we should be working getting to the MOON like Mitt Romney wants because he's gonna be in the white house....ooohhh wait he dropped out...

[mick621]

12:38 AM on 05/08/2012

what does this mean for the use of bongs in space? if we're going to go on a 9 year mission to Mars that needs to be addressed

[Genders]

07:45 PM on 05/07/2012

wow.. not.

[bobtrain]

07:16 PM on 05/07/2012

Low frequencies create the interesting effects shown in the video. The higher frequencies in the closing music (?) merely disperse the water.

[Stephen Mann]

03:16 PM on 05/07/2012

Dude, you just modeled a CME.

[Long Beach Animas]

01:10 PM on 05/07/2012

LOW FREQUENCYS TRAVEL SLOWER FLUXING MORE LIQUID ON THE SPEAKER...EARTH ALSO FLUXES RELEASING STUFF/RADIATION INTO SPACE?

[Long Beach Animas]

01:04 PM on 05/07/2012

HAARP STUFF IN SPACE COOL DUDE!

[Concerned Vet 5]

12:51 PM on 05/07/2012

It's called Cymatics.

In higher levels of cosmological training, it's understood that sound is what organizes and holds our Universe together.

There are theories that this technology was used to create the pyramids in Egypt, Coral Castle, and the thousands of stone circles Michael Tellinger is researching all over South Africa (ancient gold mines).

In time, we will be re-introduced to more of this technology.

[cuoi]

10:24 AM on 05/13/2012

More precisely, vibrations determine things, whether subatomically or on guitar strings. Change the vibrational pattern of a hydrogen atom and it becomes a helium atom and so forth.
"Atom in a Box" is a worthwhile program to fool around with the mathematical equation to change the properties of a hydrogen atom.

[WonderingNThinking]

02:44 AM on 05/07/2012

Very interesting!

[Alan Spicer]

12:29 AM on 05/07/2012

Could the water have a natural resonant frequency ... like a piece of metal or wire does as an antenna? Someone has made Water Antennas ... I saw that awhile back.

---
Alan Spicer
http://blog.marinetelecom.net

[IfIonlyknew]

11:29 PM on 05/06/2012

This man is not affected by gravity.......http://youtu.be/LXO-jKksQkM

[cuoi]

10:29 AM on 05/13/2012

Amazing. Wonder what would happen if he tried that in space? He'd probably have to wear a helmet.

[IfIonlyknew]

01:05 PM on 05/13/2012

Lol....

[Robert Huber]

11:28 PM on 05/06/2012

Oh yay!

Thank goodness we spent so much money building that space station so this guy could play with water. It's not like it could have been spent on a dozen deep space probes or anything like that.

[mbkeefer]

09:47 PM on 05/07/2012

Yep, he could have spent his free time looking out the window, reading or watching video. Instead he put together a fun demo that might teach something and get a few young people interested in science.

[mick621]

12:41 AM on 05/08/2012

the space station is already there. how is it costing anything for this guy to nerd out on his spare time? this sort of positive PR is the reason there IS a space station.

[IfIonlyknew]

11:26 PM on 05/06/2012

Corn starch and low frequencies......http://youtu.be/3zoTKXXNQIU

[cuoi]

10:33 AM on 05/13/2012

Somewhere along the line, there's gotta be some practical applications for this...

[IfIonlyknew]

01:09 PM on 05/13/2012

Someday they will use sound waves to launch rockets. And and the military will use it to destroy the enemy.

[IfIonlyknew]

11:15 PM on 05/06/2012

Now here is some cool sound waves.....http://youtu.be/Oz53w_k_j_A

[Gregor53]

07:26 PM on 05/07/2012

Now that was cool. Thanks.

[IfIonlyknew]

07:45 PM on 05/07/2012

:-)