What the book is about
Chladni bowed metal plates sprinkled with sand and watched the sand gather along the lines that do not move – making the invisible modes of vibration visible. These 'Chladni figures' became one of the most famous demonstrations in physics.
Napoleon was so impressed by a demonstration in 1809 that he funded a prize for a mathematical theory of vibrating plates; it was won by Sophie Germain in 1816. Chladni also measured the speed of sound in solids and wrote the systematic treatise 'Die Akustik' (1802).
Key ideas
- Chladni figures
- Nodal lines
- Vibrating plates
- Speed of sound in solids