Would it be possible to hold electrified liquids in the air?

[jollage]

Hi,

Would it be possible to hold electrified liquids in the air? There is an external electric field applied to the liquids. What kind of liquid must it be? I guess water wouldn't do the job.

 

[Bystander]

What is an electrified liquid?

 

[jollage]

What is an electrified liquid?

I was thinking something like molted iron or metal, that's also my question, I'm not sure what it could be. I want to know whether the liquid could be held up only by the magnetic field or electric field.

 

[Bystander]

You might want to hunt down the "Milliken Oil Drop Experiment." Magnetic levitation using attractive and repulsive effects has been applied in a variety of apparatus, "spinning rotor gauges" for vacuum systems. For liquids? Frogs levitating in high magnetic fields are a popular gimmick in laboratory public relations, and are arguably liquid.

 

[jollage]

You might want to hunt down the "Milliken Oil Drop Experiment." Magnetic levitation using attractive and repulsive effects has been applied in a variety of apparatus, "spinning rotor gauges" for vacuum systems. For liquids? Frogs levitating in high magnetic fields are a popular gimmick in laboratory public relations, and are arguably liquid.

Thank you Bystander. These seem very interesting. I checked quickly the levitating frog, I read "...Frogs are convenient (for the experiments) not only because they have a high water content, which is a good diamagnetic material...", so it seems convinced that if one applies a strong enough magnetic field to some volume of water, the water could be held in the air, is it right? But no one has done this kind of experiments? I am picturing in mind some volume of water held in the air by the magnetic field, and then (by turning off the magnetic field) falls down.

 

[Bystander]

Should be able to levitate a water droplet and depend upon surface tension to hold the droplet together. Frogs appear to be more fun for public relations purposes.

 

[Drakkith]

But no one has done this kind of experiments?

Of course they have. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_levitation#Diamagnetic_levitation

I am picturing in mind some volume of water held in the air by the magnetic field, and then (by turning off the magnetic field) falls down.

It's possible. The problem is that you need extremely high magnetic fields, something like 10-15 teslas or more.