Lissajous Apparatus (Tuning Fork and Stand)
Lissajous Apparatus (Tuning Fork and Stand)
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- Description
- With a Lissajous apparatus—devised by Jules Antoine Lissajous (1822-1880), a French mathematician—a beam of light is bounced off a mirror attached to a horizontal tuning fork, then off a second mirror attached to a vertical tuning fork, and then onto a wall. The resulting images are the graphs of complex harmonic motions known as Lissajous figures. This example came from the Smithsonian Instrument Room, and was probably purchased by Joseph Henry, the physicist who served as founding Secretary of the Smithsonian. It was, moreover, probably made by Rudolph Koenig in Paris.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Object Name
- tuning fork
- maker
- Rudolph Koenig
- place made
- France: Île-de-France, Paris
- Measurements
- overall: 13 1/2 in x 2 3/4 in x 1 7/16 in; 34.29 cm x 6.985 cm x 3.65125 cm
- ID Number
- PH.314591.04
- catalog number
- 314591.04
- accession number
- 205890
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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