Chladni: Sound Patterns

In the 18th century the physicist Ernst Chladni drew a bow across a metal plate scattered with sand, and the sand arranged itself into a pattern. When a plate vibrates, certain lines stay perfectly still. The sand settles along those quiet lines, and the pattern appears. These are Chladni figures. This app recreates that phenomenon in the palm of your hand. Three thousand grains tremble on the screen and slowly gather along the nodal lines. It is made for watching that settling happen. What you can do - Four plates, twenty patterns: switch between square, circle, triangle and ring plates. Each has five patterns, twenty in all. Every plate has its own sand colours and its own range of tones. - Turn the dial: rotating the dial changes the pattern. The sand is not reset. It slowly rearranges itself from the shape it is in into the new one, and that rearrangement is the part worth watching.…