MistaPrimeMinista said,
5-8-2006 in 07:32:36 at 137.122.234.156Thank you for your comment.
Your video is impressive too, great job !
gusto5 said,
5-8-2006 in 22:47:13 at 216.154.21.231well, with my limited insight, i will guess that by changing the way the liquid vibrates, you’ve changed the structure that the molecules are bonded in. It’s sort of like boiling water. Water changes in to gas form because you speed up the molecules with heat. I suppose a similar procedure is being done with the faraday waves.
Uncout said,
5-10-2006 in 15:52:03 at 81.149.177.25Cornstarch is a type of non newtonian liquid, my guess is that the effect is due to this. for those who dont know, a non newtonian liquid is liquid when moved gently, but solid when impacted hard
MistaPrimeMinista said,
5-10-2006 in 20:24:28 at 72.139.39.79Its good to know !! Im so ignorant about this 
Toby said,
5-18-2006 in 17:02:09 at 24.147.101.109That would be a great way to mess with your friends heads, especially in a dorm room or something.
I know, I’m slightly immature, but still!
iD said,
6-2-2006 in 23:12:08 at 69.113.45.325 year olds have been doing this for years:
http://www.kinderteacher.com/oobleck.htm
these guys just recorded it on film, and applied some fancy thousand-dollar paintcan shaker.
:shrug:
James King said,
10-2-2006 in 23:49:49 at 86.135.115.108CornStarch is reactive to pressure, if you keep it moving in your hands it’s solid like putty, if you stop moving it it returns to liquid. You can bounce off a bucket of it, but standing on it you will sink. The vibrations cause standing waves which are pressurised areas, hence the fingers that are produced. It’s funky stuff
Grumbles said,
12-11-2006 in 10:05:52 at 24.163.209.162The cornstarch mixture is a non-newtonian fluid, i.e. it’s a fluid that doesn’t behave like a fluid should. The vibrations aren’t neccessary for it to behave oddly, however, they add a cool effect. If you were to have a large pool of the stuff, you could run across it without sinking at all. Of course, you would have to run: it only acts like a solid when stress is applied. If you were to walk or stand there, you’d sink as if it were water. Very slimy water.
critter said,
3-7-2007 in 14:22:19 at 67.108.84.162Newtonian materials exhibit linear stress vs strain behavior (water). Stuff like cornstarch in water is dilatent, meaning that the stress increases with strain. So you try to push it harder it resists and begins to behave like a solid. Pick up a glob of cornstarch and water and throw it at your brother if you doubt it. (Hit him on the arm, not his head.)
whatever said,
9-13-2008 in 11:58:33 at 69.1.22.224it’s called oobleck. we learned about it in a science course. read the dr. seuss book bartholomew and the oobleck.
fab said,
12-14-2008 in 21:03:59 at 90.7.111.251I saw it on mythbuster, they gave an explanation.
The muth about “walking on water”, the special ninja show
High T3ch Magazine mention,
11-14-2006 at 09:51:15 ping from 68.178.211.80[...] Remember “Amazing Liquid Cornstarch“? This time we have a living proof that walking on water could actually be done, with some modification which you could consider as cheating. They really are walking on a liquid! VIDEO-> [...]
Walking on water and fire « John Wills Lloyd mention,
6-7-2007 at 04:42:56 ping from 208.96.40.139[...] Brian Jones’ Little Shop of Physics, Chris Chiaverina on Arbor Scientific, and especially, HighT3ch (aliens alive!) for further [...]
High T3ch » Fano Flow - Non-Newtonian Fluids Defying Gravity mention,
1-24-2008 at 23:42:17 ping from 72.167.51.197[...] way to gravity, we have seen previously seen some pretty strange liquids on here such as “cornstarch“, “mixed fluids“, “superfluids liquid helium“, “water flowing [...]
thr3shold said,
5-8-2006 in 07:13:00 at 71.142.244.140This is actually quite old and I reproduced it and took a webcam vid of it, though because the webcam sucked, so did the video, but you can see what’s going on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyzUGRr1OJs