Researchers discover vertical ball drop at University of Waterloo

University of Waterloo researchers are on a roll with their latest discovery. CTV’s Spencer Turcotte tells us how they are challenging our understanding of the

Balls usually roll horizontally but researchers at the University of Waterloo have done it on a vertical surface without applying any external force.

“Oh my God, this is not supposed to happen,” Surjyasish Mitra, a postdoctoral fellow involved in the research, told CTV News.

He said his team was looking into something else and just happened to stumble upon it.

Then it was balls to the wall to figure out what they were seeing.

“This marble will actually roll down, instead of just falling,” explained Sushanta Mitra, a UW mechanical and mechatronics engineering professor. “It almost defies the laws of physics.”

The discovery hinged on finding the right balance of elasticity, or softness, between a pea-sized sphere and a vertical slide about the size of a cellphone screen.

The ball was in their court to figure out how to bring their theory to life.

The sponge-like material has the elasticity of a contact lens and the approximate consistency of a gummy bear.

“It is actually making some cracks. It is opening and closing the cracks almost like zippers. So, they are opening up, closing. By this virtue of opening and closing, it is able to propel this motion,” Sushanta Mitra said.

Keeping their eye on the ball is a little tricky for researchers, even though it only rolls about one millimetre every two seconds.

“We repeated it multiple times to get the perfect video because it’s under a microscope and the field of view is very limited,” said A-Reum Kim, a postdoctoral fellow.

The team is already figuring out how it can be put to good use.

“In some sort of human applications or robotic drug deliveries,” said Sushanta Mitra. “Even for things like in Mars explorations, where you need these kinds of rolling motions without requiring any external agency.”

Whatever it may be used for, they’re having a ball thinking up endless possibilities for their discovery.