These pieces of ice move on their own, thanks to a great engineering trick

It looks like a straight thing from Ouija horror movie, but researchers, researchers discovered how to make snow move himself.

A video The crawling dynamic capture is characterized by the melting of an ice disk on a metal surface engraved with an indisputable zigzag. The ice and its small destruction slowly start moving sideways before suddenly picking up the speed and anxiety across the metal plate. Researchers suggest that this type of independent movement can one day generate energy.

“We prove that the solid liquid self -position using ice tablets on the herring bones. By correcting the flow of basic dissolved water, we check the self -driven for solid materials without resorting to an external force (i.e. no wind flow),” the team explained in A. Ticket It was published on Thursday in the ACS Applied Mateials & Interfaces.

To do this, the researchers dug narrow, asymmetric channels in a zigzag pattern on the surface of aluminum. When they put the ice disk over the plate, slowly melted. Grooves melted water to flow in one direction, carry the remaining ice with it.

“A good likeness is tubes on the river except here, directional channels cause flow instead of gravity,” Jack Tapocik, PhD. A student in mechanical engineering at the Virginia Institute of Applied Arts, State University (Virginia Tech) and co -author of the study, he said at a university statement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?

TapoCik and his co -workers were inspired to create this surface by California Race track– A dry lake in the Valley of Death with rocks that appear to be moving on its own, leaving mysterious paths along the exfoliated earth that has confused scientists since the 1940s.

In 2014, researchers find out That when the rain water freezes and then begins to melt again, the breeze pushes the ice shells around it, which moves rocks. In the case of studying moving ice, ice moves without external powers such as wind. In a second experiment, the team covered the Herningbone style with a water spray. They expected the disk to move faster, but instead remained in its position.

Jonathan Borico, a co -author of the study that leads a liquid laboratory and nature facades in Virginia Tech, said. “This causes the ice disk sticking to the surface hills. The melting water continues to flow along the channels, but the ice cannot be installed anymore,” he explained.

He added: “The fun trick here is that with the flow of melting water outside the front edge of the ice disk, it creates a pool. The presence of a flat pool on one side of the ice creates a mismatch in surface tension, which sails ice and causes fire on the surface.” This team describes as a slingshop.

Besides the mysterious claim of fame – the researchers believe that their surfaces have the fastest ice on this planet – they may wonder about the goal of this experience. The answer is that it can have effects on rapid ice removal and even new energy harvesting methods.

“If the surface structure is engraved in a circle instead of a straight line, the fusion object will be constantly rotated,” said Borico. “Now imagine a magnet position on the top of the ice, instead of rocks. This magnet will also revolve, which can be used to generate energy.”

The study ultimately joins a set of other creative research that sheds light on the capabilities substitute energy sourcesAnd that we need now more than ever.