The monk of the Southern Shaolin Temple Shi Liliang ran about 125 meters on the water. As a device, he used 200 plywood boards floating on the surface of the reservoir, writes on Wednesday, September 2, The Telegraph.
The record holder is able not to fall under the water, using a verified combination of running speed and balance, the newspaper specifies.
This technique is called "flying over water" and is included in the skill set of the master of kung fu. Shi Lilian is the world record holder in this activity: in January 2015, he ran 120 meters on water.
The monk began his experiments in 2009: then he covered a distance of 18 meters. The next recorded result, which he achieved a year later, was much more - 28 meters.
The question arises: how does he do it? After all, the planks cannot even withstand the weight of an ordinary brick and immediately go under water.
Physicist Yuri Ivanenko, Shnobel laureate from Russia, shared his opinion on this issue
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Back in 2013, the Russian scientist Yuri Ivanenko received the Shnobel Prize "for the discovery that a person can run on the surface of water, whether this water is on the Moon."
The researcher once and for all put an end to the question: can a person run on water. It turned out that it is impossible to do this in terrestrial conditions without additional adaptations. Our capabilities are limited to the anatomical structure.
The fact is that there are terrestrial animals, such as the basilisk, that run quite calmly on the water. The Basilisk for these superpowers was even dubbed the lizard of Jesus Christ. But reptiles move through the water due to the very frequent blows of the webbed feet on the surface. A full basilisk stride lasts 0.068 seconds, and the repulsion time is 0.008 seconds.
Since water is viscous and molecules resist movement, this short moment is enough for the basilisk to bounce off the surface. A person also needs to increase the frequency of movements, since his mass is greater. And this is already beyond our capabilities.
By the way, the same basilisk can run on water only at a young age (with a body length of 20 cm, they then weigh about 100 grams). Adults, reaching a length of 60 centimeters, are already too heavy for the water to bear their weight.
- We calculated: in order to run on water in terrestrial conditions, the foot area of a person should be 1 m2, and the speed of movement should be 10 m / s (this is the speed of Usain Bolt at the hundred-meter distance - author), - Ivanenko explained. - We experimentally confirmed our calculations in the pool, where we asked the volunteers to put on fins and fixed them on a special harness that simulates a decrease in gravity.
In principle, what the Chinese monk did is fully consistent with the formula developed by the Shnobel laureate: the role of fins, increasing the area of contact with water, was played by plywood boards. From the Shaolin master, it was only required to touch with your feet as often as possible (the viscosity of the water provided the necessary resistance) and maintain balance.
It is noteworthy that in the conditions of the Moon, where the gravity is six times less than the Earth's, a person could run on water on their own. To do this, you just need to put on footwear imitating the foot of a basilisk lizard,”Yuri Ivanenko clarifies.
* - The Shnobel Prize, unlike the Nobel Prize, is awarded for achievements that make you smile first and then think.
Yuri Ivanenko graduated from the Physics and Technology Institute (MIPT) in 1982 with a degree in biophysics. He worked at the Institute for Information Transmission Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 1986 he defended his Ph. D. thesis “Mechanical characteristics of human skeletal muscles at rest.” Then he moved to Italy, works in the laboratory of neuromotor physiology at the Scientific Institute of Santa Lucia (Rome).