Matter & Flow / Acoustics
Sound Frequency
Find the shape inside a sound.
A membrane in motion
LIVE DISPLACEMENTDrag to rotate and tilt the waves, or focus the view and use arrow keys. Gold crests, blue troughs, dark nodes. Motion is slowed so you can follow the shape.
About the model
One surface, many standing waves
A fixed-edge square membrane responds as a sum of standing-wave modes. Pitch selects which modes respond most strongly; resonance controls their damping. The drive acts off center so it can excite different shapes.
We use 64 ideal membrane modes, with natural frequencies fₘₙ = 80 √((m² + n²) / 2) Hz. The height shows displacement at a slowed driving phase, compressed at large amplitudes for visibility; colors show its sign. This is an illustrative membrane, not sand on a rigid Chladni plate. Audio plays the driving frequency at a quiet, fixed level.