How to Walk on Water

Become the Son of God
Now that’s what I call a promotion; although it’s (let’s face it) unlikely to happen to any of us mere mortals. The story is important though as it’s the most iconic and well known version of this phenomenon. This feat (or should that be feet) has given rise to many sayings used when someone completes a seemingly impossible task or when a person admires themselves or someone else too much, i.e. "John believes that Derek walks on water".

According to the Bible during the night that followed the miracle of the loaves and fishes, Jesus sends his disciples ahead of him to cross the Sea of Galilee, several hours later the disciples encounter a storm. Jesus comes to them by walking on the water and saves them all as is written in Mark 6:51. "And he went up to them into the ship; and the wind ceased”.

Full of religious symbolism this account has often caused people to seek some explanation other than divinity. Writing in The Journal of Paleolimnology Doron Nof a professor of Oceanography at Florida State University conducted an inquiry and determined that Jesus could have been walking on a layer of ice. Dr Nof speculated that although this has not happened in recent history unusual freezing processes occurred in the region over the last 12,000 years which could have led to this event.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walking_on_water


Become a Basilisk
The Basilisk is often called "The Jesus Lizard" or "The Jesus Christ Lizard" because of its ability to walk on water. Capable of reaching a velocity of 1.5 meters per second the lizard can travel on water for up to 4.5 meters before sinking.

Recent studies have revealed that the lizards produce a large upward force every time the lizard slaps its foot down into the water; this force keeps the animal from sinking straight down into the liquid.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilisk_lizard
See: http://www.reptilesweb.com/reptile-videos/interesting-clips/jesus-lizard-running-on-water.html
See: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/11/1116_041116_jesus_lizard.html
See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4033725.stm


Become a Gerridae Insect
The Gerridae insects are predatory insects which rely on surface tension to walk on top of water. They live on the surface of ponds and other areas of still or near still water. They can move relatively quickly reaching speeds of up to 1.5 meters per second.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_strider
See: http://www.livescience.com/animals/041103_water_strider.html


Become a Robot
Inspired by the Gerridae Insects noted above scientists have come up with a robot that is able to walk on water. Engineers at Carnegie Mellon University have constructed insectlike mechanical robots with multiple legs. Ranging from 2 to 6 six inches long the bots can scoot across the waters surface. The robots are called STRIDE, which stands for surface tension based robotic insect dynamic explorer and use the waters surface tension. Nothing beats nature though the robots are over 100 times heavier than the insects and so the insects still win in terms of speed over the water.

See: http://www.societyofrobots.com/robot_jesus_lizard.shtml
See: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=robots-that-walk-on-water


Play More Computer Games
There is a common cheat for video games known as "Jesus Mode" it allows your character to walk on water. Some games have taken this a step further apparently the character Yuna walks on water in the game Final Fantasy X the summoner while she performs the sending.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walking_on_water
See: http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22Jesus+Mode%22+cheat+OR+cheats&hl=en&rls=GGLG,GGLG:2005-26,GGLG:en&start=10&sa=N


Buy a Wavewalk Kayak
Although they currently offer no products that will allow you to walk on water micronautical.com have carried out some great work in this area and are offering licenses to manufacture and distribute commercial products using there walking-on-water invention.

See: http://www.wavewalk.com/
See: http://www.micronautical.com/WALKING_ON_WATER.html


Use Non-Newtonian Fluid
Recently a Spanish television show featured a man walking on water he did this by getting a concrete mixer truck and filling it with cornstarch and water and then emptying the entire mix into a swimming pool. Please don’t attempt this in your own pool it looks far too dangerous and would cost a fortune in cornstarch.

To put it simply the application of force to Non-Newtonian Fluid leads to the liquid behaving like a solid. It is the force that’s important here as without sufficient force the liquid will not behave like a solid.

See: http://onemansblog.com/2006/11/16/how-to-walk-on-water/
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non_Newtonian_fluid


Don’t Become a Christian
Ironically as far as my research suggests becoming a Christian is a definite no no when it comes to walking on water see the 2 examples below.

African Evangelist preacher Franck Kabele died in 2006 after trying to replicate Jesus on a beach in Libreville, Gabon. Apparently he took his congregation to the beach attempted the walk on water and soon passed from view.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walking_on_water

In California in 1999 a group of Christians were attempting to master the art of walking on water in an attempt to get closer to God. This unfortunately led to the premature demise of their leader while practicing in his Bathtub; apparently he slipped on a bar of soap and drowned.

See: http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin1999-49.html