The headline was small for such a fantastic announcement. The June 16 UPI story out of Washington announced for the first time in the history of the world: "Water made to run uphill." This wasn't the "Enquirer" or the "News of the World." This is United Press International. UPI doesn't report Elvis sightings.
I must admit that the concept "up" has become very confusing to me since we started exploring space. I know that the moon is up from my house, but where is it from Australia? If the moon is up from both Ephraim and Australia then the mystery of making water run uphill is not nearly so mysterious. Like all roads leading to Rome, everything is eventually up. If I dig down through the earth to Australia and keep going I can hit the moon just as sure as if I started my moon trip going up from Ephraim. All directions lead up?I have never heard a farmer who irrigates for a living claim to make water run uphill. Farmers know the truth of the matter despite the faith-promoting rumors about early Utah pioneers who irrigated up. I have heard some backyard gardeners with doctorates in English claim that water runs uphill if there is enough force and if taken up gradually.
Maybe we could take a vote and the majority would rule. If most think that water can run uphill, then it most certainly does. We couldn't all be fooled, could we?
The UPI story said that "to accomplish the gravity-defying feat, researchers reported . . . they coated a small, silicon wafer with a film of water-repellent chemical applied progressively thicker from one edge to the other."
"The wafer was then tilted at a 15-degree angle, with the most water-repellent edge at the bottom and the least water-repellent edge at the top. When a water drop was placed on the wafer, it moved `uphill' away from the water-repellent region and toward the `water loving' region at a speed of 1 to 2 millimeters per second."
This doesn't mean that the water is moving along at irrigation ditch speed. One or 2 millimeters per second is about 2 to 4 thousandths (0.002237 to 0.004474) of a mile per hour. This is about the same speed at which electrons move through a wire. Although the electric current travels at the speed of light the electrons themselves move through the wire about the same speed as water runs uphill at a 15-degree angle.
At least I can understand the slow. The fast I can't comprehend.
Light travels at 186,000 miles per second, which makes it about 671,000,000 miles per hour. Just figure that light can go around the Earth seven and a half times in a second. That is faster than water running uphill. To calculate how many times faster, divide the speed of light by the speed of water and . . . Physics is a mystery to me.
Physics is also a mystery to the backyard gardeners who claim to make water run uphill. Here's what Dr. John R. Hendrickson, professor emeritus of English at Snow College, has to say about it:Making Water Run Uphill
Physics is a mystery to him,
but not the meta.
"If you do it slowly enough," he says,
you can make water run uphill."
Much like ideas, I suppose.
You can make them run uphill, too,
defy gravity, bend spoons, cheat reason,
if you only do it right,
say, with the Book in one hand
and a smart shill in the other,
or just anyone who needs to believe badly enough -
someone to cast off crutches,
cry tears of repentance, shout hallelujahs,
regain sight, conquer cancer, palsy, Parkinson's.
Any infirmity will do so long as it astounds.
It's the water running uphill the crowd comes to see.
Good grief, there's no trick to believing
the evidence of science, or common sense.
That's just Pablum.
But to see and feel the emperor's clothes?
Now there's a trick worth two of Newton's.
Apples fall.
Any fool knows that.
It's getting them to go the other way
that takes a really open mind.Manoj Chaudhury of Dow Corning, who conducted the study with George Whitesides of Harvard University in Boston, says that "the drop experiences a stronger force at its front (lower) end than at its back (upper) end. This difference of force is what causes the drop to move uphill."
He also said that practical applications of making water run uphill are "a little iffy at the time."
Roger G. Baker is associate professor of English/education at Snow College. Comments or questions about "Learning Matters" may be addressed to Dr. Roger Baker, English Department, Snow College, Ephraim, UT 84627.