

By Andrew Liszewski

Visitors to this year’s Chelsea Garden Show were left scratching their heads by an unusual fountain created by none other than inventor James Dyson. Inspired by the works of MC Escher, the water in the fountain appears to flow uphill, cascading over the top of a series of four ramps. Wrong Garden, as it’s called, actually took about 12 months to design and build, and the secret to how the illusion is accomplished is spoiled revealed in the above illustration from BBC News. Basically the laws of physics are left in tact, but compressed air is used to create bubbles that provide visual clues that the water is flowing uphill, when in fact it’s not.

(Fountain image courtesy Flickr user zeddy1200)

[ BBC News – How does Dyson make water go uphill? ] VIA [ MAKE: Blog ]