


When physicist Ernst Chladni performed this experiment in the 18th century, he did it with flour instead of sand, and made his metal plate vibrate with a violin bow instead of a tone generator, but the end result is the same: when the plate vibrates at a steady frequency, the particles on its surface arrange into a beautiful pattern.

The particles (sand, in this case) are arranging themselves along what are called "nodal lines" – narrow curves of motionless calm that criss-cross the otherwise vibrating surface. As the frequency changes, so does the distribution of these nodal lines, which becomes increasingly intricate at higher frequencies.

UPDATE: Brusspup has uploaded the full video of the experiment, with tones. WARNING: LOWER YOUR VOLUME. The audio in the clip could cause hearing damage.

[Brusspup via COLOSSAL]