Humans and The Art Of Walking On Water!
We have conquered the sky, the land, and even water. Almost. But can we walk on water? We are no basilisk lizards or insects, but they sure beat us when it comes to walking on water. It's not that we are pathetic when compared to them, but everything boils down to science, so let's take a look as to why we can't pull off the Biblical feat, and validate our banal existence.
Yoav Rosen's miracle shoes: Rosen created quite a stir when his unusual invention was granted patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) back in 2004. His Upright Human Floatation Apparatus and Propulsion Mechanism, or simply 'pontoon shoes', allows people to walk on water! But there is catch. Well, sort of. As Rosen puts it, "Before you start walking on water you have to stand on water, and that's not an easy thing. The water is a living, moving, dynamic thing." We do hope that something better pops up in Rosen's curious mind, and he comes up with something even better in the coming years.
Dwarka Prasad Chaurasia and his superpowers: Looks like being stranded on a rainy day in Punjab isn't a bad thing. Maybe not for us, but this incident left Dwarka Prasad with ideas about being able to brave the flood waters, and he went on invent the amphibious bicycle which actually ran on water. But his amazing journey continued, as the next invention was amphibious shoes, basically constructed from thermocol in 1978. He perfected the design, bound it to roxine sheets, and attached metal scrapes to the floating shoes, which were 3 ft long, and 10 inch wide. And just like boats, an oar was needed to maintain the balance. In should be noted that in 2007, Dwarka Prasad received the National Grassroots Innovation Award for his floating shoes.
How to walk on water without shoes, and not drown? For humans to pull off this feat, and get a ticket to Professor X's school for mutants, we need to be nearly as fast as the cheetah, with a sprint pushing 67 mph! Or we can just try really hard to outrun Usain Bolt, not by mere seconds, but three times faster then the fastest man on earth! If you want to turn into a basilisk lizard and simply slap your feet on water to generate the required force to walk on water, than try to match the cheetah or the human cheetah (Bolt), then maybe you have got your priorities right. Almost. Because life is not fair when you learn that more than 1200 species of animals can walk on water, while you have to use oars and wear funny looking shoes, just to learn to stand up straight on water.
Leonardo da Vinci tried designing 'pontoon' shoes in order to be able to walk on water. That was in the 15th century. A few centuries later, we are still chasing this dream. Maybe one day we will be able to walk on water, but today, we just need to put on our best shoes and go for a long walk to watch the sunset.
Post Written by - Lopamudra
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