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Then they lifted off, and were pulled upwards towards the positive electrode. Here they immediately Vibram Five Fingers Speed positively charged, so they were now attracted back down to the negative electrode. In other words, once the electric field reached a certain threshold, the rods began to jump repeatedly back and forth through the oil from one electrode to the other. Gilchrist's team got similar results with metal spheres less than Vibram Five Fingers Sprint nanometres across.It was a good start, but to pull the particles clear out of the oil they would have to overcome surface-tension. At very small scales, surface tension is a big deal: it's what allows insects to walk on water, for example. What's more, intense electric fields can make a liquid unstable, inducing charges at the surface that pull it up into peaks, Vibram Five Fingers Treksport like a finger dabbing at tacky glue. These peaks can even break free, forming charged droplets that could short-circuit the electrodes. When the researchers added an air gap above the oil they found that the aluminium rods jumped clear of the oil, while the electric field was still low Vibram Five Fingers Women not to disturb its surface. When they tried metal spheres, however, the field required was so intense that the oil surface became unstable. So bullets definitely seem better than grapeshot - for this large-scale prototype at least. The researchers have yet to discover how nanoparticles behave in a scaled down version of this experiment. Yet these tests have helped to give Gilchrist a better idea of how his engine will operate.