Is a flying carpet possible?

i-5db0f3cbdbc8247d8c0284c43c07162e-flyingcarpet.jpgThe answer is a resounding sorta. Scientists at Harvard have done that calculations and found that "the aerodynamics of a flexible, rippling sheet moving through a fluid" ... should make it "possible to make one that will stay aloft in air." However,

No such carpet is going to ferry people around, though. The researchers say that to stay afloat in air, a sheet measuring about 10 centimetres long and 0.1 millimetres thick would need to vibrate at about 10 hertz with an amplitude of about 0.25 millimetres. Making a heavier carpet 'fly' is not forbidden by the laws of physics. But the researchers say that their "computations and scaling laws suggest it will remain in the magical, mystical and virtual realm", as the engine driving the necessary vibrations would need to be so powerful.

How about those hover boards from Back to the Future then? I want one of those!

i-b62664f4b89d4c188de8dd49e078f275-backtothefuture_hoverboard.jpg

More like this

The Year In Film 2007 | The A.V. Club I don't see enough movies to do a sensible "Year's Best" list any more, but the AV Club is one of the most reliable review sites out there. (tags: movies) Are We Not Men? Jon Zobenicaoverthinks Playboy and Maxim (tags: culture gender journalism sex society…
Dr. Free-Ride: What do you guys want to discuss this afternoon? Younger offspring: The human body. Elder offspring: Yeah, how the human body works. Dr. Free-Ride: Um, you guys know that "how the human body works" is a huge subject that we will never get through before dinner, right? You're going…
Evolution is nature's great R&D division. Through mutation, natural selection, and other processes, life can find new solutions for the challenge of staying alive. It's possible to see a simplified version of this problem solving at work in the lab. The genetic molecule RNA, for example, can…
You know I have trouble letting stuff go, right? I am still thinking about these crazy long basketball shots. Here are some more thoughts. Really, there are two things I am interested in. First, commenter Scott Post suggests that the drag coefficient might be around 0.25 instead of 0.5. I don't…