Scientists have found that the trousers in the Wallace & Gromit film titled ‘The Wrong Trousers’, which let the wearer walk on ceilings and walls, are scientifically possible, although you will be able to do so only for a short period of time.
In the 1993 film, Gromit receives a pair of robotic Nasa-made trousers from Wallace for his birthday which allows its wearer to walk up walls. Physics students from the University of Leicester have found that scaling walls and ceilings using the technology would indeed be possible, albeit for a short period of time.
The group of fourth year students from the department of physics and astronomy examined how much suction is required to allow a grown man wearing the trousers to walk on the ceiling. They calculated that the vacuum generator in the boots of the trousers, if powerful enough, would allow for a level of suction that could allow people to see the world upside down.
“The trousers must be able to function with only one of the boots in contact with the ceiling as well as both,” said one of the students, Katie Raymer. “All the simple calculations in the study were worked out with one boot supporting all the weight.
“In order for the vacuum generator in the sole of the boots to work, we assumed there is a raised rubber insulator surrounding the boot of the trousers. This would create a cavity which has a lower pressure than the surroundings when the vacuum is applied. We observed that the difference in pressure between the atmosphere and the cavity and found that the vacuum generator needs to be powerful enough to reduce atmospheric pressure inside the boot cavity by approximately around 18%,” Raymer said in order to create a vacuum capable of supporting Wallace and the trousers.
