You may have seen the levitation tricks performed in the magic shows. While that remains a part of popular fiction, scientists have also been apparently working on this front. And now, they have been able to levitate drops of liquid with the help of acoustic waves.
The liquid drops contained pharmaceuticals and were placed between two speakers creating sound waves at a certain frequency between the two. By adjusting these sound waves, scientists were able to cancel the gravitational effect on the drops of liquid and have them suspended in mid-air.
The sound waves generated by the two microphones are at a frequency of 22 kHz. The two speakers, one placed at the bottom and one at the bottom, as shown in the image above, are aligned perfectly and then used to generate perfect interference such that they result in a standing wave.
Such a wave eliminates the affects of gravity from the liquid drops which are suspended within this standing wave. This break-through can be very significant in that such levitation can be used to evaporate solutions without causing crystallization, a process which can be deployed to create more effective medicine.
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