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The title, I don't know whether it's correct or not, but I came across a video in youtube, http://youtu.be/_PkgQQqpH2M.

The author of video used the title and hence I used the same..

The video doesn't seems to be fake because of the "noise" in water flow. But what kind of freq. and why it makes the water flow in this pattern??

EDIT1: The title might create some confusion with the nature of the flow. The water drops are not stagnant. The water is moving/flowing. but the flow is sort of like standing wave pattern. There are nodes and anti-nodes in the flow. drop which seems stationary are nodes. But as such water seems to flow in and out of the nodal region.

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You could also provide "non conformist" explanation of the video and we could try to crack it down. Why do you think water flow follows that path? – Pygmalion Apr 17 '12 at 6:39
i don't know..probably because of the resonance of the water inside the tube with the bass played on speakers...and some addendum to water, probably making it sort of non Newtonian fluid... – Vineet Menon Apr 17 '12 at 7:12
I don't know about non-Newtonian fluid, but resonance and oscillations outside the tube do not make sense. In order to have oscillations you must have equilibrium state and the force that pushes particles into equilibrium, and there is no such force. And of course oscillations eventually create waves, and when you have waves, you have crests that travel in space... – Pygmalion Apr 17 '12 at 7:36
ya..it might be fake then..youtube is full of them anyways... :D – Vineet Menon Apr 17 '12 at 8:59

1 Answer

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This is a fake. I think there is a tiny transparent wire, which makes water follow this pattern. As soon as water leaves the tube there is no other force acting on it except for gravity and air drag and neither could make such a pattern. Unless you have transparent wire...

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You also have surface tension as an important force. I had the impression that I even saw this wire at some points. Nice video though :) – Bernhard Apr 17 '12 at 5:44
Yes and this surface tension "forces" water to follow the wire, at least for a while. – Pygmalion Apr 17 '12 at 5:49
if you will notice, there are water droplets coming out of the shape formed... I have mentioned this as "noise" in my question.... If there would have been a thin tube, then the drops would not fly off... – Vineet Menon Apr 17 '12 at 5:51
That is not only surface tension, but the wetting behavior of the triple point solid-liquid-gas, which also takes the solid surface properties into account (e.g. hydrofylic). – Bernhard Apr 17 '12 at 5:53
@VineetMenon Pygmalion means that the drops are flowing on the outside of a small wire, not inside a small tube. – Bernhard Apr 17 '12 at 5:54
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