Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Floating Pond

Inspired by the upside down fountain.
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A pond in the middle of a mall or public area suspended by air jets.

You'd see this big, undulating body of water just floating in air 3 or 4 feet above the ground. It could move around, dance, form rudimentary shapes, basically do this continually moving water blob ballet.

It would have to be contained by a wall of air that would keep the water in the display area as the thing would be more a cloud of droplets than a body of water getting stirred up by the air blasts so maybe "Dancing Cloud" would be a better name.

Might be kinda loud though.

ADDENDUM: Include alternative methods proposed by other bakers on how to do this that are more interesting than my air suspended concept.

doctorremulac3, Oct 19 2017

Inspired by Upside-Down_20Fountain
[doctorremulac3, Oct 19 2017]

Floating Gardens Floating_20Gardens
[theircompetitor, Oct 19 2017]

Magnetic fluids? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrofluid
ferrofluid or ferromagnetic fluid [Skewed, Jul 30 2020]

Levitating Magnetic Fluid https://www.youtube...watch?v=bYGQu-LHSNE
[Skewed, Jul 30 2020]

Now in colours other than black https://www.youtube...sZK1g&start_radio=1
[Skewed, Jul 30 2020]

Right next to the Romantic Hovering Souffle Restaurant Romantic_20Hovering...ffl_e9_20Restaurant
[hippo, Jul 31 2020]

Levitating frog https://www.youtube...watch?v=KlJsVqc0ywM
They used magnets [Skewed, Aug 02 2020]

Magnetic Levitation. https://en.wikipedi...Magnetic_levitation
Can be used to levitate ordinary water. [Skewed, Aug 02 2020]

Do enormous magnets effect the human body? https://www.nytimes...the-human-body.html
The New York Times [Skewed, Aug 02 2020]

How strong would a magnetic field have to be to kill you? https://www.quora.c...e-to-be-to-kill-you
Answers to this Quora question give some other insight [Skewed, Aug 02 2020]

100-tesla pulsed magnetic field achieved https://www.science...08/110823134929.htm
A 2011 ScienceDaily article [Skewed, Aug 02 2020]

Diamagnetism: How to Levitate a Frog https://www.youtube...watch?v=ZLkP6S6mKsY
Hmm gonna need a lot of power it seems. [Skewed, Aug 02 2020]

Go to 3:40 https://www.youtube...watch?v=YxhRActz2Qo
Might look something like this. [doctorremulac3, Jan 09 2023]

[link]






       this might work - for demodices.
mylodon, Oct 19 2017
  

       From the "inspiration": //Suspended fountain, powerful sheets of jetted air keep a volume of water perpetually spinning and travelling through mid-air as though spilling down an invisible water-slide. — 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Oct 22 2017//
pocmloc, Jul 30 2020
  

       Have you considered magnetic fluids <linky> as an alternative to your noisy air blasts?
Skewed, Jul 30 2020
  

       Now, if we could find some clear (or relatively clear) magnetic substance to make our nanoparticles from & could use Perfluorohexane or something equally breathable as the fluid base then that would really be just about perfect.   

       A levitating pool of fluid we can both swim & breath in that looks like water.   

       Don't think it's viscous enough though?   

       All the fluids I've seen used for this are oils.
Skewed, Jul 30 2020
  

       Would heavy water be more viscous than regular water?
whatrock, Jul 31 2020
  

       I was thinking that would be super loud. Then I got to your last statement and now I don't know whether the loudness thought was injected into my subconscious mind through the corner of my eye or whether it was an original thought. For causing me this pain I am awarding a fishbone despite the fact that I like the idea.
Voice, Jul 31 2020
  

       // Would heavy water be more viscous than regular water? //   

       Sure, but dunno if it's viscous enough.   

       If it is we need bigger magnets, cos it's heavy.   

       Downside is it's kinda poisonous in large concentrations.
Skewed, Jul 31 2020
  

       Maybe put the thing in a sound deadening glass enclosure?   

       What would be basically a wind tunnel holding this thing up would have to be very controlled to keep it from just turning into spray. You'd test the premise by taking a cup of water with nozzles spraying from different angles such that you had a suspended, non-atomized ball of water floating in air, then you'd expand on that till you had the floating pond.   

       I think you'd need many thousands of nozzles basically actively "steering" the water into a pond shape. Might be easier to make it a spinning maelstrom rather than a static pond, which could be cool too.
doctorremulac3, Jul 31 2020
  

       How would this do anything other than just spray water everywhere?
tatterdemalion, Jul 31 2020
  

       Well if you're going to use glass enclosures we can just use water in a giant glass bowl.   

       & suspend it by maglev with a few strategically placed metal inserts.   

       Or just dangle it from a big crane.
Skewed, Jul 31 2020
  

       In those "indoor sky-diving" facilities, I've seen pictures of substantial bodies of water being held up by a jet of air - but those bodies of water were held together by a lot of human skin and other tissue.   

       Absent the skin, I suspect your problem's going to be that the water molecules can slip through the gaps between the air molecules, however hard you push those air molecules at them. However, I wonder whether something can be done with surface tension to overcome this.
pertinax, Jul 31 2020
  

       Could use something of a more Jello like consistency as long as it LOOKS like water. I don't think anybody would say "Hey, that's too viscous!", they'd just say "Hmm. Floating water thing.", take a bite of their pizza and continue shopping in the mall.   

       Even with that you'd have to create a cocoon of air to mold the water (or jello) into shape. Blast of air + water = mist, but that being said, use enough air nozzles and you might be able to corral these droplets into one contained area. Having it not move like a pond might not be possible but having some kind of floating whirlpool might.   

       Certainly on one plane you could keep the water from moving through that plane with a high pressure "sheet" of air. Could you then do it on other planes and angles? Could some amount of water be constrained above a horizontal plane with a strong enough sheet of air? That's the hardest part. If you could do that then you'd only have to work on constraining the sides with perhaps a pinwheel configuration of other air nozzles to shape the sides.   

       Dunno. Be interesting to try.
doctorremulac3, Jul 31 2020
  

       Have you considered a scaled-up silicone implant bag?
pertinax, Jul 31 2020
  

       I can honestly say, in my entire life, I have never considered a scaled-up, floating silicon implant bag suspended pond simulation. LOL.   

       I'm putting that at the top of the feasibility list. THAT would achieve the desired result. Silicon is needlessly heavy though. Liquid hydrogen would pose more problems than it would solve. Water in a suitably clear and strong plastic bag is probably the best way to get the desired result unless something better comes up.
doctorremulac3, Jul 31 2020
  

       Does it have to be a liquid? A sea of tiny silvery Bernoulli'd table tennis balls.
wjt, Aug 01 2020
  

       Might not look like a pond but could look cool. Cover them with something sparkly maybe.
doctorremulac3, Aug 02 2020
  

       If you stayed with the bag, kept water in it (not silicone), and left the top open, then you could still feed the goldfish.   

       You were going to feed the goldfish, weren't you?   

       The interesting challenge then would be to keep the shape slightly dynamic (with the air jets making "waves" on the under-surface) without spilling it everywhere.
pertinax, Aug 02 2020
  

       I think if you did the bag thing you might be able to have an open top. The bag would keep the water from atomizing, so sure. Not sure the goldfish would be particularly happy but hard to judge the mood of a goldfish anyway.   

       As far as retaining some kind of shape, although optical sensors looking at the surface of what was being suspended might work, adjusting the air blast as the target moved, it would be pretty complicated. The static sheets and columns of air would probably be better to try first.   

       //You were going to feed the goldfish, weren't you?//   

       Wonder if there's a way to just suspend the goldfish. While keeping them alive I mean. I'm gonna saaaayyyy no. Interesting challenge though.
doctorremulac3, Aug 02 2020
  

       I missed this or I would have bunned it for the title alone. It and its sister "Floating Lake".
blissmiss, Aug 02 2020
  

       // Wonder if there's a way to just suspend the goldfish //   

       Oh that's easy, if we can do it with a frog <link> we can do it with a goldfish.
Skewed, Aug 02 2020
  

       Hmm.   

       That had me checking out how they did it & why it works.   

       "As water is predominantly diamagnetic, this technique has been used to levitate water droplets and even live animals" <link>   

       So with big enough magnets we can levitate ordinary water & don't need any special magnetic fluids.   

       Try magnets instead of air blasts.
Skewed, Aug 02 2020
  

       There's an idea. And with that much magnetic force I'm assuming this would be an order of magnitude more hazardous than an MRI machine too. The idea of an art exhibit with lots of danger / warning signs around it is appealing. Bun for that alone.   

       If we could bun annotations, which has been often suggested.
doctorremulac3, Aug 02 2020
  

       Seems you can get pretty strong with no real problems.   

       That frog was alive before during & after its levitation & they were talking about it being possible to levitate people that way in the clip as well.   

       So we're probably good until we start approaching magnetic power levels strong enough to start atomising stuff which from a cursory spin through the subject is going to be well above what we need it seems? <3 links>   

       It does seem to have some effect on vision & heartbeats.   

       But not lethally so, apparently.   

       If you have a pacemaker all bets are probably off.
Skewed, Aug 02 2020
  

       Gonna need a lot of power it seems <link>
Skewed, Aug 02 2020
  

       A lot of writhing, moaning people stuck to the mechanics, might just be the artistic flourish this levitation installation needs.
wjt, Aug 05 2020
  

       //A lot of writhing, moaning people stuck to the mechanics// Isn't that just a concise definition of the internet?
pocmloc, Aug 05 2020
  

       // people stuck to the mechanics, might just be the artistic flourish this levitation installation needs //   

       That's not how Diamagnetism works, which is what we'd be using, & that repels water (the bulk of any humans body mass) regardless of which pole of the magnet is pointed at it.   

       You're thinking of Ferromagnetism which is different.
Skewed, Aug 05 2020
  

       According to the last link I posted you'd need a 'slightly weaker' than 45-Tesla hybrid magnet in the floor of the room you were using & 1 GigaWatt of continuous power consumption to levitate a person.   

       So a more substantial body of water that several people could swim around in if they wanted would need more.   

       Or lots of separate ones of the same power side by side.
Skewed, Aug 05 2020
  

       You probably need some smaller ones in the walls pointing in to stop the water flowing off the edges of the levitation area as well.
Skewed, Aug 05 2020
  

       [Skewed] Doesn't the material levitated produce the diamagnetism? The super powerful magnets have the standard north and south therefore are able to attract trinkets and implants.
wjt, Aug 07 2020
  

       OK, I see where you're coming from now.   

       So swimsuits with no metal would be the dress code, or nudity, a waiver stating you have no implants would no doubt be involved as well.   

       My apologies for not saying that earlier, I was assuming a modicum of common sense, forgot where I was for an instant, my bad ;p
Skewed, Aug 07 2020
  

       //common sense//!?!?   

       This is the Halfbakery sir. Reading that I was so shocked my monocle fell into my brandy sniffer and splashed my ascot.
doctorremulac3, Aug 07 2020
  

       [Skewed] All good. You were actually spot on and my embarrassment forced me to remember the loop hole that metallic objects still weren't allowed near the levitation apparatus. So I did a wiki check.
wjt, Aug 08 2020
  

       Found an animation that approximates what this might look like. (link)
doctorremulac3, Jan 09 2023
  
      
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