Hydrodynamic Levitation!
Why Physics Stack Exchange recommends it
Physics Stack Exchange users link it as the source phenomenon when asking or answering how a ball or cylinder can be levitated by a water or air jet.
Recommended by 2 people across 2 different months, 2017 to 2025.
What it is
Veritasium shows light balls, disks and cylinders levitating on a stream of water and explains that the effect is not the usual Bernoulli effect. Instead the stream is deflected around and down by the object, and Newton's third law pushes the object up, with a stable equilibrium position. The video runs about six minutes and includes slow-motion footage.
What people said
Recommends stafusa · 2017-08 · Physics Stack Exchange · on “Fluid Mechanics explanation of an object levitated next to an air jet”
Coanda. Essentially two things are going on here: Coanda effect [LINK] : The jet of air tend to follow the surface: so it's thrown to the right and down in this video, which (Newton's third law) means the object is pushed up and to the left; but if it goes too much to the left, it'll be pushed back by the direct "hit" of the jet. That's what makes it stable. Dynamic pressure , which helps keeping the object afloat against the pull of gravity: the jet has upwards momentum, is to a great extent driven sideways as the object blocks its path and, in doing so, exerts force on it. It also keeps the cylinder next to the jet, instead of directly at it, as can happen at lower speeds. That's very well
Recommends Ramesh Gupta · 2020-06 · Physics Stack Exchange · on “Explain hydrodynamic Levitation”
I would recommend this video by veritasium [this video] ! Hydrodynamic levitation is as loose ended as it sounds, its just levitation, hydrodynamically. Since the Magnus effect is also just a cause of the Bernoulli's Principle, we can surely and sufficiently say that so is hydrodynamic levitation. As far as case wise specification is concerned, your question has been previously answered here- Any solutions to Veritasium's hydrodynamic levitation? [LINK] I also found these two practical and hypothetical models to be commendable- Distance control between probe and sample using hydrodynamic levitation [LINK] Hemocompatibility of a hydrodynamic levitation centrifugal blood pump [LINK] I Hope I was ab
Cites Mauricio · 2017-09 · Physics Stack Exchange · on “Any research on Veritasium's hydrodynamic levitation?”
So this Youtube video has been around for a while now Veritasium Hydrodynamic levitation! [this video] (2017). Also these questions Fluid Mechanics explanation of an object levitated next to an air jet [LINK] and Explain hydrodynamic Levitation [LINK] may be related. Description To avoid rot links and people that do not want to see the video, I'll try to explain the phenomena. You have a sphere (radius of about various centimetres) and a water jet. The water jet is vertical (jet velocity goes against gravity), and the jet touches the sphere almost tangentially. The ball not only rotates due to the water jet but also stays at constant height from the ground. The angular velocity can be defined in
Cites QuIcKmAtHs · 2018-12 · Physics Stack Exchange · on “Levitating water wheel/ball”
Recently I have come across this [this video] interesting YouTube video regarding this phenomenon. A huge ball is able to be levitated when a part of it is in contact with a water jet shooting upwards. After some experimentation, I realised that hydrophobic(non water-absorbent) surfaces are able to exhibit this phenomenon, such as styrofoam and plastic, whereas cork did not work as well. This has led me to believe that one of the forces responsible for keeping the ball in levitation is the adhesion between the water molecules and the surface. However, part of the puzzle still seems missing. Is the adhesive force solely responsible for keeping the ball/wheel up? Considering adhesive forces are rel
Cites James · 2025-08 · Physics Stack Exchange · on “Confusion over Feynman’s description of the Wu experiment for parity violation”
(+1) The cobalt atoms used in the experiment have all exactly the same spin state, right? Since spin *itself* is a directional preference, why is it so surprising/unbelievable that the electrons which are emitted during decay *also* turn out to have some directional preference, e.g. [this video] ?