Why “Cymatics”? What does it mean? Cymatics can be described as the process of visualizing sound waves by vibrating a medium.
All sounds we hear are waves, typically in air, that vibrate your eardrums, which in turn create electrical signals to send to your brain to interpret. These waves are only invisible to our eyes simply because air is invisible.
The concept of cymatics is to use a substance other than air to transmit sound in order to to visualize the waves.
This was most notably done by Hans Jenny, who attached a sine wave frequency generator to a metal plate, placed sand or dust on the metal plate, and then vibrated the metal plate at different frequencies using the frequency generator.
He found that at certain frequencies, the sand or dust would form geometric patterns that became more and more complex at higher and higher frequencies. Here is a fascinating TED talk on the subject.
Cymatics image credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvJAgrUBF4w