Adventures with Lissajous Figures
- Thomas B. Greenslade, Jr.
- June 2018
Description
Lissajous figures are produced by combining two oscillations at right angles to each other. The figures, drawn by mechanical devices called harmonographs, have scientific uses, but are also enjoyed for their own beauty. The author has been working with harmonographs since his undergraduate days, building several of them, lecturing on them and has written articles about them.This book is intended for people who enjoy physics or art or both. Certainly, physics professionals, both students and faculty members, will enjoy reading about an interesting byway of physics. The book is mainly designed for the reader who has some scientific literacy, but who may not be a scientist. If your mathematics is rusty, a preliminary section on mathematics supplies the necessary background for reading the rest of the book.
About Editors
Thomas Greenslade received an AB in physics from Amherst College in 1959 and a doctorate in experimental low temperature physics from Rutgers University in 1965. From 1964 to 2005 he taught physics at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. Since retiring he has continued writing and lecturing about early apparatus. He has been fascinated by Lissajous figures and the harmonographs used to draw them since his undergraduate days.Table of Contents
PREFACE
PRELIMINARIES
Some Mathematics
How Lissajous Figures are Formed
HISTORY
Nathanial Bowditch and the Y-Shaped Pendulum
Jules Antoine Lissajous and His Tuning Forks
Hubert Arey and His Observations from Nature
HARMONOGRAPHS OF ALL SORTS
Oscillating Mirrors
The Kaleidophone
Oscillating Blades
Pendulum Harmonographs
The Y-Shaped Pendulum
The Two-Speaker Harmonograph
Other Harmonographs of Unusual Design
The Oscilloscope
The Animated Harmonograph
Harmonograph "Toys"
LOVELY LISSAJOUS FIGURE
Bibliographic
Paperback ISBN: 9780750329217
Ebook ISBN: 9781643270098
DOI: 10.1088/978-1-6432-7010-4
Publisher: Morgan & Claypool Publishers