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Robots That Bounce on Water

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the something-about-tigger-goes-here dept.

inghamb87 writes "The way water striders walk on water was discovered years ago. The insect uses its long legs to help evenly distribute its tiny body weight. The weight is distributed over a large area so that the fragile skin formed by surface tension supports the bug on the water. However, the ability of water striders to jump onto water without sinking has baffled scientists, until now." If nothing less, you need to see the picture: it's awesome.

1 of 137 comments (clear)

  1. Rather short on information... by damn_registrars · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I managed to view the site before it went down in flames under the slashdot effect. The picture was cool, but the article left much to be desired:

    How big is the robot?
    How much does it weigh?
    How fast can it move?
    How is it controlled?
    What is the range of speeds for this that was mentioned in the article?
    They mentioned applying it to sampling water quality, but wouldn't that disrupt the surface tension to sample the water right under the robot?

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    Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.