Sound and Sight: Acoustic Figures and Visual Phenomena

Abstract

The impact that the analysis of sound waves has made on theories of light is well known, and is touched upon here. However, the acoustic figures described initially by Robert Hooke in 1665 and in more detail by Ernst Chladni in 1787 (often referred to as Chladni figures) were instrumental in vision in two specific respects. First, their representation by Tyndall [1867 Sound. A Course of Eight Lectures Delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain (London: Longmans, Green)] in a book on sound resulted in the description of a visual illusion, the Hermann grid. Secondly, attempts to render the acoustic figures visible (on the basis of briefly persisting images) led to the discovery of instruments that could synthesise movement. These two developments are discussed in their historical contexts.

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