Friday, December 28, 2007

The Physics of Flying Carpets

New Scientist:

I've just been sent a fun paper by Harvard mathematician Lakshminarayanan Mahadevan on the physics of flying carpets. It's published in a recent edition of the physics journal Physical Review Letters.

It addresses this question: "From a physical perspective ... [is] a flying carpet possible and, if so, under which conditions might it operate?" The answer turns out to be a tentative yes, carpets can fly, if vibrated appropriately.

Read the whole thing.

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