Chladni plates are among the most trippy physics toys around. They turn vibration patterns into geometric sand shapes. You can play around with all kinds of frequencies to see sand or salt shape amazing patterns. You can always build your own or buy a fancy one like the SoundScribe Bluetooth Chladni Plate for experiments. This one connects to your phone wirelessly and lets you use your favorite sound frequency apps to experiment. We recently had the chance to test one. Ours shipped with sand and a smart Chladni plate that doubles as a speaker.
This is a plug & play gadget. You simply have to connect to your phone, choose an app that can play different frequencies and make sure you have enough sand on the plate. In our video, we didn’t use enough sand but enough to see different patterns. The change can happen in a couple of seconds and never ceases to amaze. Each frequency produces different geometric patterns. So what is even the point of something like this? Ernst Chladni’s 18th‑century experiments simply proved that sound travels as waves. Now you can play around with the same idea on your desk.
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