
Chladni Patterns - lbotos
http://skullsinthestars.com/2013/05/02/physics-demonstrations-chladni-patterns/
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kabla
Really cool post! I wrote a blog post on calculating/simulating these
patterns: [http://blog.kaistale.com/?p=1295](http://blog.kaistale.com/?p=1295)

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lbotos
Awesome! I figured someone here would have studied/written something awesome
about them. Is the code for your simulation available anywhere?

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kabla
It's some pretty messy Python code, so at the moment no :)

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yetanotherphd
The only thing missing from this is a reference to the mathematical theory of
harmonic analysis, which provides a way to calculate the exact eigenvalues (or
modes) of these systems (well at least a linear approximation to them). In
particular, there is a lot that can be said about such systems (formally
defined by a self-adjoint operator on a Hilbert space) beyond simply
simulating them.

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err4nt
It is believed that the stone carvings in the Rosslyn Chapel show not only
knowledge of these Chladni patterns, but also represent the first use of them
to encode information. It's believed by some who study them that they encoded
sacred melodies in the physical structure of the church in a way that only
those with hidden knowledge (at the time) could decipher.

The most fascinating thing about the Rosslyn Chapel is that since it was built
during the 1400s it predates Chladni by at least THREE CENTURIES! That's
pretty fantastic in itself.

[http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_rosslyn_code/2011/05/...](http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_rosslyn_code/2011/05/the_rosslyn_code_5.single.html)

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darsham
According to Wikipedia :

"Like many claims in the cymatics community, the hypothesis that the carvings
represent Chladni patterns is not supported by scientific or historical
evidence.[citation needed] One of the problems is that many of the 'box'
carvings are not original, having been replaced in the 19th century following
damage by erosion."

Citation needed indeed, but there's no academic research about this
extravagant theory anyways, and with my foray into the subject, I just found
the patterns to be decorative geometric shapes with a coincidental resemblance
to Chladni patterns.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cymatics](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cymatics)

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err4nt
I know it's debated, but it wouldn't be the first time humanity rediscovered
forgotten knowledge! What intrigues me about it is it still lines up with
Occams Razor and the KISS principle, if mystics and academics of the day
wanted to encode secret knowledge this would fit the bill perfectly at the
time the original chapel was built.

I haven't looked I to the actual history as much, I ran across Rosslyn reading
about art history and cathedral architecture and I spent a lot more time
reading about Chladni patterns than I ever did about Rosslyn itself. Thought
the link would be interesting in light of the original article.

Now what I am wondering is the shapes of these patterns on non-square and non-
circular plates. I haven't seen many exotically shaped plates so it leads me
to wonder if the patterns don't show up as well on other shapes. I'm curious
from a visual perspective what 'patterns' occur in nature like some people
obsess about relationships between made-up numbers ;)

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chillingeffect
I had heard about these a million times and understood laser resonance, but
hadn't previously made the connection to atomic resonance! Not sure I fully
grasp it yet, but it's great to have identified that area :-)

