The audio is aliasing with the video frame rate, causing the stroboscopic stop action effect, but only almost so, hence the aliasing between the two frequencies/phases.
Unless it’s a fake, then the only rational explanation is that the sign wave breaks the flow up into larger drops and what we are seeing is a stroboscopic effect of the camera frame rate. However, even so, it would be somewhat amazing that what is normally such a chaotic flow can be so stable.
You’ve hit the nail on the head about chaotic flows Steve – I think (1) the video is real, (2) the water flowing upwards is the strobe effect, and (3) you couldn’t do the same trick without the audio frequency keeping the standing wave (or whatever it is) operating inside the tube.
Excellent observation. I concluded it based on the neatness of the upward flow back into the spigot
the doctor who has a sonic screwdriver that can be capable of this effect. what we may be seeing here is a fist stage in developing a real sonic screwdriver of the type that the doctor who uses.
I want a sonic screwdriver. Do you think they sell them on E-bay?
I’m totally getting one to open those “child proof” prescription bottles.
Yes, but it still wouldn’t work on wood.
It’s amazing how non-chaotic this system is that the water looks like it’s frozen. You can see when it ‘reverses’ that the same shapes are formed repeatedly. I’d say this is definitely reproduceable, and looks very impressive.
very cool, although I know noise frequencey can cause all kinds of strange things, its not going up, as you can still hear drips as the water goes up, or appears too, but I like it
Of course it’s real. Am I the only one that read the description? The key part would be “Basically your camera’s frame rate is synced up with the rate of the vibrations of the water so it appears to be frozen or still.”
Although it would depend on how you define “real” and “fake”. Is the water flowing up? No. But has the video been tampered with? Also no.
I’ve done a very similar trick with an adjustable-frequency strobe light and a faucet (with the room lights off). Syncing frequencies “freezes” the stream, and slight frequency shifts off will cause the stream to slowly “move” one direction or the other. It’s also a fun time to play with the strobe and the waves-on-a-string experiment — waves can be frozen in place or made to “vibrate” very slowly.
This was all done in the Physics Department I was working in. Cool toys and cool demos are plentiful.
It’s a frame-rate effect. Somewhere on YouTube there’s a video of a Russian Mi-24 helicopter apparently hovering with its rotor blades stationary – for exactly the same reason. Sad how few commenters there got it…
If the the sound wave caused the water to move upward, why would it move back into the spout? It would simply move upward with no regard to the spout. If, by some miracle, it were moving into the spout, the pressure from the water source as well as restriction from the spigot would prevent it from entering.
Genuine in the sense of a nice bit of trick photography, but not in terms of water moving upward.
I don’t think anyone is suggesting the water is ACTUALLY going up. The question is whether the illusion of it going up is natural, or via some video-doctoring trickery.
You make sense re:spout. First part of the clip I was trying to see the water go up. I thought about the wheel motion on frame but only when I considered it as an illusion. To me it looked real and I was convinced.
re: “I don’t think anyone is suggesting the water is ACTUALLY going up.”
There are people that believe an invisible, bearded, old man lives in the sky, performs miracles, is omnipotent and omniscient, but somehow always needs money, I’m sure there are some that believe the water really was moving up. 😉
Interference pattern, obviously. Were you expecting us to be impressed or confused? If so, you’ve mistaken us with people from the 19th century.
That is fascinating, thanks for that, Richard 🙂 Of course, it could be caused by perhaps the movement of the water being out of phase with the camera (as when wagon wheels seem to turn backwards in films) or elements could be being played backwards, but then I’ve seen cornflower mixtures “dancing” on speakers, so fluids, of varying viscosity, do behave strangely to vibrations, so, well, if it is genuine, it’s most intriguing. Thanks ever so much for sharing more cerebral stimulation 😀
Thanks for that, Spider, that’s fascinating! I know that some form of self-cleaning glass has been developed and is used for some high-rise buildings, but I’m not sure how close the technology is to this. It’s amazing to see it magnified and slowed, especially in seeing the water droplets bouncing and lifting dust off with them. The applications could be virtually endless (and bathroom mirrors that don’t steam up, and don’t need back-heating to make them steamproof, would be a good start). Might be very helpful in clean environments such as operating theatres, too. Again, thanks for the link, Spider: marvellous stuff! 😀
Ditto : )
A good explanation taken from a YouTube comment:
“24hz, 24fps. frames per second. This only records specific shots, making the water look like it’s stopped or going backwards, like a car wheel looks like while spinning.”
Totally genuine – it’s just ‘Strobing’ where the video frame rate is slightly longer or slightly shorter than the rate at which the water drops are being formed. You can see it in videos of helicopter rotors: if the video rate matches the rotor rate (or a multiple of), it looks like the rotors are stationary, or turning slowly.
Richard Wiseman 
Frame rates are cool.
The audio is aliasing with the video frame rate, causing the stroboscopic stop action effect, but only almost so, hence the aliasing between the two frequencies/phases.
looks fake to me
This is similar to the effect when it looks like the wheels of a car rotate backwards when filmed.
I’m guessing that’s an effect similar to wheels appearing to go backwards.
Unless it’s a fake, then the only rational explanation is that the sign wave breaks the flow up into larger drops and what we are seeing is a stroboscopic effect of the camera frame rate. However, even so, it would be somewhat amazing that what is normally such a chaotic flow can be so stable.
oops “sine” wave, not “sign” of course.
You’ve hit the nail on the head about chaotic flows Steve – I think (1) the video is real, (2) the water flowing upwards is the strobe effect, and (3) you couldn’t do the same trick without the audio frequency keeping the standing wave (or whatever it is) operating inside the tube.
Great trick.
Yeah, I think it’s the frame rate that’s doing it. 24 hz is 24 waves per second, video is captured at 24 frames per second. Super cool, nonetheless.
Brusspup is famous for his videos of illusions. I suspect trickery!
It’s a very clever trick and I like it!
It’s definitely not going up, since the noise of the water dribbling into the tub at the bottom is still audible. Ace illusion though.
Excellent observation. I concluded it based on the neatness of the upward flow back into the spigot
the doctor who has a sonic screwdriver that can be capable of this effect. what we may be seeing here is a fist stage in developing a real sonic screwdriver of the type that the doctor who uses.
I want a sonic screwdriver. Do you think they sell them on E-bay?
I’m totally getting one to open those “child proof” prescription bottles.
Yes, but it still wouldn’t work on wood.
It’s amazing how non-chaotic this system is that the water looks like it’s frozen. You can see when it ‘reverses’ that the same shapes are formed repeatedly. I’d say this is definitely reproduceable, and looks very impressive.
very cool, although I know noise frequencey can cause all kinds of strange things, its not going up, as you can still hear drips as the water goes up, or appears too, but I like it
If only water could be sent up by sound I would never have got drenched at music festivals, protected by a bassumbrella.
Of course it’s real. Am I the only one that read the description? The key part would be “Basically your camera’s frame rate is synced up with the rate of the vibrations of the water so it appears to be frozen or still.”
Although it would depend on how you define “real” and “fake”. Is the water flowing up? No. But has the video been tampered with? Also no.
I’ve done a very similar trick with an adjustable-frequency strobe light and a faucet (with the room lights off). Syncing frequencies “freezes” the stream, and slight frequency shifts off will cause the stream to slowly “move” one direction or the other. It’s also a fun time to play with the strobe and the waves-on-a-string experiment — waves can be frozen in place or made to “vibrate” very slowly.
This was all done in the Physics Department I was working in. Cool toys and cool demos are plentiful.
It’s a frame-rate effect. Somewhere on YouTube there’s a video of a Russian Mi-24 helicopter apparently hovering with its rotor blades stationary – for exactly the same reason. Sad how few commenters there got it…
Few?
It’s basically what everyone said.
Bzzt. Sorry. Not genuine.
If the the sound wave caused the water to move upward, why would it move back into the spout? It would simply move upward with no regard to the spout. If, by some miracle, it were moving into the spout, the pressure from the water source as well as restriction from the spigot would prevent it from entering.
Genuine in the sense of a nice bit of trick photography, but not in terms of water moving upward.
I don’t think anyone is suggesting the water is ACTUALLY going up. The question is whether the illusion of it going up is natural, or via some video-doctoring trickery.
You make sense re:spout. First part of the clip I was trying to see the water go up. I thought about the wheel motion on frame but only when I considered it as an illusion. To me it looked real and I was convinced.
re: “I don’t think anyone is suggesting the water is ACTUALLY going up.”
There are people that believe an invisible, bearded, old man lives in the sky, performs miracles, is omnipotent and omniscient, but somehow always needs money, I’m sure there are some that believe the water really was moving up. 😉
Interference pattern, obviously. Were you expecting us to be impressed or confused? If so, you’ve mistaken us with people from the 19th century.
That is fascinating, thanks for that, Richard 🙂 Of course, it could be caused by perhaps the movement of the water being out of phase with the camera (as when wagon wheels seem to turn backwards in films) or elements could be being played backwards, but then I’ve seen cornflower mixtures “dancing” on speakers, so fluids, of varying viscosity, do behave strangely to vibrations, so, well, if it is genuine, it’s most intriguing. Thanks ever so much for sharing more cerebral stimulation 😀
Not vibrations as such, but here are some bouncing droplets… http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-04/mit-engineers-design-fog-free-water-repellent-and-no-glare-nano-glass?cmpid=tw
Thanks for that, Spider, that’s fascinating! I know that some form of self-cleaning glass has been developed and is used for some high-rise buildings, but I’m not sure how close the technology is to this. It’s amazing to see it magnified and slowed, especially in seeing the water droplets bouncing and lifting dust off with them. The applications could be virtually endless (and bathroom mirrors that don’t steam up, and don’t need back-heating to make them steamproof, would be a good start). Might be very helpful in clean environments such as operating theatres, too. Again, thanks for the link, Spider: marvellous stuff! 😀
Ditto : )
A good explanation taken from a YouTube comment:
“24hz, 24fps. frames per second. This only records specific shots, making the water look like it’s stopped or going backwards, like a car wheel looks like while spinning.”
Totally genuine – it’s just ‘Strobing’ where the video frame rate is slightly longer or slightly shorter than the rate at which the water drops are being formed. You can see it in videos of helicopter rotors: if the video rate matches the rotor rate (or a multiple of), it looks like the rotors are stationary, or turning slowly.
I think it’s the strobe effect. But whatever, it made me run to the bathroom. Damn prostrate 🙂