Build an Ultrasonic Levitator
Abstract
It's not magic; it's science! Build your own acoustic levitator to make objects float in midair using
invisible sound waves.
Summary
AREAS OF SCIENCE
Electricity & Electronics
DIFFICULTY
METHOD
Engineering Design Process
TIME REQUIRED
Short (2-5 days)
PREREQUISITES
Previous Arduino experience is recommended. See our How to Use an Arduino page for tutorials.
MATERIAL AVAILABILITY
A kit is available from our partner Home Science Tools®. See the Materials section for details.
COST
High ($100 - $150)
SAFETY
Pets may be sensitive to ultrasonic sound.
CREDITS
Ben Finio, PhD, Science Buddies
Science Buddies is committed to creating content authored by scientists and educators. Learn
more about our process and how we use AI.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcMT-MGv2cw
Objective
Design, build, and test an ultrasonic levitator.
Introduction
Sound waves travel through the air as vibrations. A moving source (like a speaker) bumps into the
nearby air particles, which in turn bump into other air particles, and so on. Regions where the air
particles are closer together, called compressions, have a higher pressure. Regions where they are
farther apart, called rarefactions, have a lower pressure. Rather than drawing individual air particles,
we can represent a sound wave (or pressure wave) graphically with a sine wave, as shown in Figure 1.
The y-axis of this graph represents pressure, so the peaks correspond to regions of high pressure,
and the valleys correspond to regions of low pressure.
Image Credit: Lucas Vieira / Public domain
Figure 1. Animation of a sound wave and its representation with a sine wave.
Something interesting happens when two waves overlap. The amplitudes, or heights, of the waves
add up. At any given moment, the height of a wave can be positive (above zero, or the average value
of the wave) or negative (below zero). When both heights are positive, the amplitudes combine to
make the resulting wave bigger. This is called constructive interference. When one height is positive
and the other is negative, the resulting wave becomes smaller. This is called destructive interference.
If you aim two identical waves directly at each other, they can combine to create a standing wave as
shown in Figure 2. The blue wave travels from left to right. The red wave travels from right to left.
They combine to form the black wave, which appears to oscillate in place without moving in either
direction. The standing wave has nodes, represented by red dots, where the waves perfectly cancel
each other out. These nodes do not move at all. Remember that this sine wave is a graphical
representation of the pressure in a sound wave. This means that the nodes are points where the
pressure does not change.
Image Credit: Jonathan Thomas-Palmer
Figure 2. Two opposing waves interfering to create a standing wave.
A sound's frequency, or pitch, is the number of waves that pass a point in one second. Frequency is
measured in hertz (Hz). Typical human hearing range goes from about 20 Hz up to around 20,000 Hz,
or 20 kilohertz (kHz). The exact range can vary from person to person and with age. Sounds with a
frequency above 20 kHz are in the ultrasonic range. Humans cannot hear these sounds, but many
animals can, including common household pets like dogs and cats. In this project, you will use
ultrasonic transmitters, also called transducers. They are like speakers that are designed specifically
to produce ultrasonic sound. This works because they have a resonant frequency - the frequency at
which they vibrate the most - in the ultrasonic range. When you aim two of these transmitters at each
other and drive them at the same frequency, they create an ultrasonic standing wave. Lightweight
objects, like bits of foam, can get trapped in the resulting pressure nodes, as shown in Figure 3. The
physics behind why the particles get trapped in the pressure nodes (as opposed to the pressure anti-
nodes, which are displacement nodes, where pressure changes are at a maximum but the air is not
moving) is somewhat complicated. See the references in the Bibliography for a more detailed
explanation. Qualitatively, you can think of the pressure nodes as points of minimum potential energy,
so the particles will move towards those points, just like a ball rolling down a hill to the bottom of a
valley.
Image Credit: Ben Finio / Science Buddies
Figure 3. Pieces of foam levitating between two ultrasonic transmitters.
Do you think people will believe that the foam is truly levitating, or will they think it is an optical
illusion or trick? Build your own ultrasonic levitator and find out!
Terms and Concepts
Wave
Vibration
Compression
Pressure
Rarefaction
Amplitude
Constructive interference
Destructive interference
Standing wave
Node
Hertz
Transmitter
Transducer
Questions
How do sound waves travel through the air?
How is a standing wave created?
How does ultrasonic levitation work?
Bibliography
Follow the first few tutorials in this series if you have never used an Arduino before:
Finio, B. (n.d.). How to Use an Arduino. Science Buddies. Retrieved July 24, 2025
The following ultrasonic levitators all provided inspiration for this project:
mukeshnjangra (n.d.). Making an Acoustic Levitator or Ultrasonic Levitation. Instructables.
Retrieved July 24, 2025
Physics Girl (2017, December 13). I built an acoustic LEVITATOR! Making liquid float on air.
YouTube. Retrieved July 24, 2025
Edison Science Corner (2020, August 14). How to make Ultrasonic levitator at home | full theory
explained | Acoustic levitator. YouTube. Retrieved July 24, 2025
Check out these resources to learn more about the physics behind ultrasonic levitation:
Harvard Natural Sciences Lecture Demonstrations (2017, February 23). Acoustic Standing
Waves and the Levitation of Small Objects. YouTube. Retrieved July 24, 2025
Jackson, D. and Chang, M. (2021). Acoustic levitation and the acoustic radiation force. American
Journal of Physics. Retrieved July 24, 2025
Materials and Equipment
Recommended Project Supplies
Get the right supplies — selected and tested to
work with this project.
View Kit
Electronics Kit for Arduino, available from our partner Home Science Tools®
Windows or Mac computer. See this page if you have a Chromebook. Your computer will need:
Access to the Arduino IDE, either installed local version or web-based editor. Watch this
video for a comparison of the two options.
USB port. The Science Buddies kit comes with a USB-A to C cable. The "C" end plugs into
the Arduino, and the "A" end plugs into your computer. You will need an adapter or
different cable if your computer only has USB-C ports. Watch this video to learn about the
different types of cables and adapters.
Additional parts (not included in the kit) must be purchased separately. Note that many parts
are available in bulk on Amazon. You can purchase individual parts from electronics vendors
like SparkFun, Adafruit, or Jameco Electronics.
Ultrasonic transmitters (2)
Alligator clip leads (4)
L293D H-bridge motor driver (1)
12V wall adapter power supply with 5.5x2.1mm plug (1)
Female 5.5x2.1mm plug adapter (1)
74HC04N inverter (1)
Additional jumper wires (assorted)
Tweezers
Small pieces of a styrofoam block (you can salvage from packaging material instead of
buying new)
Optional: construction materials to build a stand, such as wood, cardboard, or building
blocks, and hot glue
Disclaimer: Science Buddies participates in affiliate programs with Home Science Tools®, Amazon.com,
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Experimental Procedure
This project follows the Engineering Design Process. Confirm with your teacher if this is
acceptable for your project, and review the steps before you begin.
Before you begin: Review How to Use an Arduino Tutorials 1-3.
1. Assemble the circuit as shown in Figure 4. You can also access a Tinkercad Circuits version of
the circuit here. Note that the power and ground buses on your breadboard may be reversed
from what is shown in the diagram. In the diagram, the power (+) buses are on the left and the
ground (-) buses are on the right.
a. Connect the Arduino's 5V pin to the right-side power bus.
b. Connect one of the Arduino's GND pins to one of the ground buses. Connect the two
ground buses with a jumper wire.
c. Insert the H-bridge into the breadboard so it is spanning the gap in the middle, with the
semicircular notch pointed towards the top of the breadboard. The H-bridge's pins are
numbered 1 through 16, going counterclockwise from the top left. Connect them as
follows. We will leave some of the pins empty for now:
i. Pin 1 to 5V (right-side power bus)
ii. Pin 2 to Arduino pin 3
iii. Pin 4 to ground
iv. Pin 5 to ground
v. Pin 7 to ground
vi. Pin 8 to the left-side power bus (you have not connected an external power supply
yet)
vii. Pin 12 to ground
viii. Pin 13 to ground
ix. Pin 16 to 5V (right-side power bus)
d. Connect your ultrasonic transmitters to the breadboard using alligator clips and jumper
wires (Figure 5).
i. Connect one pin from each transmitter to H-bridge pin 3.
ii. Connect one pin from each transmitter to H-bridge pin 6.
e. Connect an external power supply to the power and ground buses on the left side of your
breadboard.
i. You can start out with a 9V battery. Use a snap connector and barrel jack adapter to
connect it to the breadboard.
ii. Note that it is important for your entire circuit to have a common ground, which is
why the breadboard ground buses, the battery's negative wire, and the Arduino GND
pin are all connected.
iii. It is important not to connect the two different positive power buses, which have two
different voltages (5V and 9V). This will create a short circuit and can damage your
Arduino.
Image Credit: Ben Finio / Science Buddies
Figure 4. Breadboard diagram for ultrasonic levitator.
Image Credit: Ben Finio / Science Buddies
Figure 5. Completed circuit, showing how alligator clips are used to connect the ultrasonic
transmitters.
2. Download the ultrasonic_levitator_digitalWrite.ino example code. Read through the commented
code.
a. The example code is written for an Arduino Uno R4 or compatible third-party board. It
uses the digitalWrite and delay functions to rapidly toggle an Arduino pin on and
off, generating an approximate 40 kHz signal. Since the digitalWrite command
takes some time to run, the timing is not exact, but the signal should be reasonably close
to 40 kHz.
b. If you are using an Arduino Uno R3 or a compatible board, you can use the Arduino tone
function instead to generate a signal at almost exactly 40 kHz. (You cannot use the
tone function on an Uno R4 because it results in an actual output signal of 41.67 kHz,
which is too far past the transmitter's resonant frequency.)
3. Upload the code to your Arduino. Remember that you cannot hear ultrasonic sound, and there
will be no visual indication that your transmitters are on, so it can be hard to tell if your circuit is
working at first. That is OK.
4. Hold one of the transmitters a few centimeters above the other, as shown in Figure 3.
5. Use a pair of tweezers to carefully place a small bit of foam midair in between the two
transmitters. What happens? It can take some practice. Try again and don't get discouraged if
the foam falls. Make sure you do not pinch the foam too hard or, it may stick to the tweezers.
6. If you still have difficulty getting the foam to float, try upgrading to a higher voltage power
supply, such as a 12V wall adapter instead of a 9V battery.
a. Important: there are two ways to provide a higher voltage to your breadboard. You can
plug the power supply directly into your Arduino's barrel jack, then connect the Arduino's
Vin pin to your breadboard's power bus. However, it is only safe to do this if your power
supply's voltage is below your Arduino's maximum rated input voltage. For higher voltage
power supplies, you should connect directly to the breadboard using the barrel jack
adapter, as shown in Figure 5.
7. To get even more powerful output from your transmitters, add an inverter and rewire your circuit
as shown in Figure 6. This configuration doubles the voltage applied to the transmitters. You
can also access a Tinkercad Circuits version of the circuit here.
a. Place the inverter in the breadboard across the middle gap. Make sure the semicircular
notch is facing toward the top of the breadboard. Like the H-bridge, its pins are numbered
counterclockwise, starting with 1 in the top left.
i. Connect pin 7 to the ground bus.
ii. Connect pin 14 to 5V (right-side power bus).
b. Remove the jumper wire connecting H-bridge pin 7 to the ground bus.
c. Use a new jumper wire to connect H-bridge pin 7 to inverter pin 2.
d. Use another jumper wire to connect H-bridge pin 2 to inverter pin 1.
Image Credit: Ben Finio / Science Buddies
Figure 6. Breadboard diagram for circuit with inverter added.
8. Test your levitator again. If you can get one piece of foam to levitate, try adding more. Can you
get multiple pieces to levitate at once, as shown in Figure 7? There are many more things you
can do with this project. See the Variations section for more ideas.
Image Credit: Ben Finio / Science Buddies
Figure 7. Three pieces of foam levitating in the nodes of the ultrasonic standing wave.
Variations
Build a stand for your ultrasonic levitator to hold the transmitters in place.
Try using a syringe to dispense and levitate drops of water, as shown in this video.
Look up the relationship between the speed of sound, frequency, and wavelength. How is the
wavelength of the sound related to the distance between nodes in a standing wave? Is this
distance consistent with what you observe in your experiment?
Does acoustic levitation need to be ultrasonic? Can you get this experiment to work with regular
speakers?
Can you build an ultrasonic levitator with a dome-shaped array of multiple ultrasonic
transmitters on each side (see Bibliography)?
Can you control the phase of the drive signal between multiple transmitters to move an object
around in space? Due to the precise timing required, this may require more advanced drive
electronics than an Arduino.
If you have access to an oscilloscope, experiment with different ways to generate a 40 kHz
signal with an Arduino. Use the oscilloscope to measure the actual output frequency of the
resulting signal. How close can you get to 40 kHz?
Measure your transmitter's frequency response by driving it with different frequencies, as
demonstrated in the video at the top of this page. Use a two-channel oscilloscope to measure
A) the actual frequency of your output signal and B) the peak-to-peak voltage of the resulting
signal on an ultrasonic receiver held at a fixed distance from the transmitter. What is the
transmitter's resonant frequency? If you have access to a function generator, you can use it to
generate the drive signal instead of an Arduino, replacing the input to H-bridge pin 2 with the
output from the function generator.
Careers
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Mechanical Engineer In Demand
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Mechanical engineers are part of your everyday life,
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Contact Us
Our kits are developed in partnership with Home Science Tools®. If you have purchased a kit for this
project, Home Science Tools® is pleased to answer any questions.
In your email, please follow these instructions:
1. Include your Home Science Tools® order number.
2. Please describe how you need help as thoroughly as possible:
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the LED is not lighting up.
Bad Question I don't understand the instructions. Help!
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called for in the material list?
Bad Question Can I use a different part?
Contact Support
Related Links
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News Feed on This Topic
Acoustic levitation made simple, EurekAlert!, January 5, 2015
These sound waves can levitate and move particles in new ways, Science News,
December 17, 2018
Now you can levitate liquids and insects at home, EurekAlert!, August 15, 2017
Note: A computerized matching algorithm suggests the above articles. It's not as smart as you are, and it may occasionally
give humorous, ridiculous, or even annoying results! Learn more about the News Feed
Cite This Page
General citation information is provided here. Be sure to check the formatting, including
capitalization, for the method you are using and update your citation, as needed.
MLA Style
Finio, Ben. "Build an Ultrasonic Levitator." Science Buddies, 31 July 2025,
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/Elec_p121/electricity-
electronics/ultrasonic-levitator. Accessed 21 Aug. 2025.
APA Style
Finio, B. (2025, July 31). Build an Ultrasonic Levitator. Retrieved from
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/Elec_p121/electricity-
electronics/ultrasonic-levitator
Last edit date: 2025-07-31
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