What is cymatics?

Cymatics is the study of sound made visible: the patterns that appear when a surface, a layer of sand or a dish of water vibrates at a given frequency.

A short history

• Robert Hooke and Galileo noticed in the 1600s that vibrating surfaces could arrange dust or flour into shapes.
• Ernst Chladni published in 1787 how sand on a metal plate, bowed with a violin bow, gathers along lines that do not move. These Chladni figures made acoustics something you could see.
• Michael Faraday showed in 1831 that a liquid shaken up and down forms standing waves at half the shaking frequency. These are now called Faraday waves.
• Hans Jenny, a Swiss physician, coined the word "cymatics" (from the Greek kyma, wave) in 1967 and photographed patterns in sand, pastes and liquids driven by sound.

How the patterns form

Any plate or body of water has natural ways of vibrating, called modes. Each mode has a shape and a frequency. When the sound matches or drives a mode, that shape grows. On a plate, sand collects on the still lines (nodes). On water, light reflects off the moving surface and draws the wave pattern.

Higher frequencies give smaller, finer patterns. The shape of the container matters too: a circular dish gives rings and petals, a square one gives grids and crosses.

Why patterns look like mandalas

A circular container favours patterns with rotational symmetry: three-fold, five-fold, twelve-fold and more. That is why many water patterns look like mandalas or rose windows. The symmetry comes from the physics of the container, which is what makes it interesting to see.

Try it yourself

Aetheric Cymatics is a free simulator in your browser. Play a tone, sing into the microphone or load a song, and watch a modelled water cell form patterns as the frequency changes.