"The career of a young theoretical physicist consists of treating the harmonic oscillator in ever-increasing levels of abstraction" --Sidney Coleman.
Trying to capture the simplicity as well as the magic of harmonic oscillations, I've created three-dimensional Lissajous figures with code. It is so easy to write down these innocuous three functions making up this structure as we are trained to think analytically (in formulae, calculus) and digitally (in code). Yet it takes a while to fully grasp the oscillations in an analog, holistic way. So - to document a slow and painstaking - yet interesting and beautiful - thought process, I am not connecting the dots.
Lissajous figures in three dimensions, created with custom code - no AI. Each Lissajous curve is made up of individual dots. Colored in the inverted pure spectral colors of the rainbow.
Elke Stangl (elkement) (she/her) is an Austrian physics PhD working as an engineer. Her mathematical art is borne out of her life-long passion for the theoretical underpinnings of her craft. She is creating virtual three-dimensional structures from mathematical functions – digitally with code or with ruler and compass, using.. Read more…