Longtime readers of The Physics Teacher will have noted my interest in oscillations and waves.1 In particular, Lissajous figures, which are the resultant of two simple harmonic motions at right angles to each other, have fascinated me since I first saw a device drawing them at Amherst College in 1957. In this paper I want to show some of the apparatus that has been developed to display Lissajous figures. There is more than antiquarian interest here; some of these can be reproduced fairly easily today.
REFERENCES
1.
For example, see
Thomas B.
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Greenslade
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);Thomas B.
Greenslade
Jr., “The double-elliptic harmonograph
,” Phys. Teach.
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–91
(Feb. 1998
).2.
The idea of combining two SHMs at right angles to each other is due to Nathaniel Bowditch (1773–1838) in a paper published in 1815.
3.
Thomas B.
Greenslade
Jr., “19th century textbook illustrations, LI: The kaleidophone
,” Phys. Teach.
30
, 38
–39
(Jan. 1992
).4.
Thomas B.
Greenslade
Jr., “The acoustical apparatus of Rudolph Koenig
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(Dec. 1992
).5.
Robert J.
Whitaker
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(Feb. 2001
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R. H.
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George M. Hopkins, Experimental Science (Munn & Co., New York, 1890), p. 137.
8.
The Laser Pattern Generator, sold by Arbor Scientific, P. O. Box 2750, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-2750; http://www.arborsci.com.
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© 2003 American Association of Physics Teachers.
2003
American Association of Physics Teachers
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