When you step into a pool of water, you fully expect your foot to fall right down to the bottom, unless you’re under the delusion that you’re the savior of mankind. But if that water has just the right mix of cornstarch in it, you’ll just sort of bounce along the surface. Film company WeAreKix teamed up with Mach by Hong Leon Bank to fill a pool with 8,000 liters of non-Newtonian fluid for an event that makes science fun.
A slight blue tint to the fluid makes the illusion more complete; it really does look like a pool of cloudy water until you witness the surreal sight of someone trotting along the surface like it’s no big deal. Of course, you have to tread lightly and quickly, or you might actually break through and get sucked into the sticky fluid like the little kid in the video.
The event took place in Kuala Lumpur and offered a party-like environment to explore the science of non-Newtownian fluid. Visitors ran, jumped and even rode their bikes across the surface of the pool.
Mythbusters carried out a similar experiment, trying out all sorts of possibilities before settling on non-Newtowntian fluid made with 1,000 pounds of cornstarch.
Bonus feature: liquid mountaineering – the art of skipping like a stone on the surface of the water, using special shoes to get extra steps before you slip below the surface.
