A team of researchers from the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) has managed to explain how it is possible to walk on water, under certain conditions: the key is in a balance of forces.
Starting from the behavior of a non-Newtonian fluid (as it happens when we mix cornstarch and warm water, whose resulting substance is molded if we press with a finger but it becomes almost a wall if we try to step on it with force, it determines that on this suspension it is possible to walk – so it would be possible to walk on water).
Based on this behavior, the experts have experimentally demonstrated that this happens not only because the particles collide with each other due to the effect of pressure, but also because short-range repulsive forces participate in this process, either of physical-chemical or electrostatic origin, which They make it easier for a liquid to become a solid at certain joints.
This would be the explanation for the possibility of walking on water, but its discovery will also allow -through the manipulation of these forces- a large number of new applications: to get lighter bulletproof vests (made up of granules with the ability to expand and make them resistant to bladed weapons), sportswear that is lighter but very resistant in the event of a crash (for pilots, motorcyclists …) or to make cements much more solid (incorporating polymers to control their hardening properties).
The key is in the deformation and flow of matter
The scientists tested their theory on a model of silicon particles, verifying that by decreasing the pressure of the repulsive force (which is what keeps the particles apart), the liquid state disappeared and the resulting suspension became completely solid. All the result of a frictional transition.
The study has been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
