Mechanical Memory: How to Make a Wave Get Stuck and Move On
If you compress a plate with accordion-like cells, a kink wave runs through it, like a wrinkle in a rug when you push it with your foot. Such waves can switch the material between two stable shapes, and this is the basis of mechanical memory. But if a table leg gets in the way of the wrinkle, it gets stuck. In a new study, researchers showed how to nudge it loose without brute force.