Research Blog - visible sound

In my research I have come across this really amazing phenomena that shows sound waves manifested in physical representations by putting a cornstarch and water mixture on a speaker. It seems a sine wave is required to achieve this effect, but I think it can be produced in some way or another using different sound waves or materials such as water. A sine wave is a single tone without harmonics and is found in ocean waves, light waves, and sound waves.

A similar phenomena can be seen when applying vibration waves to various particles like sand. I found this other video that shows this and explains some of the ideas I am working with, such as the idea everything is built upon different vibrations of energy running through everything.

I find it very interesting that sound has this effect on matter. But it makes sense based on my understanding that everything is basically the same thing and that rhythms of energy, basically in a musical way, bring everything into existance. Like the vibrations effect on cornstarch, when we make music we are applying energy to different notes in a rhythm that creates something almost tangible. Through different combinations of instruments, tempos, rhythms, notes, etc. a musical world is created in the listeners head. The reason we enjoy music is because it touches our primal instincts, when we hear something like a drum beat we subconciously associate it with experiences like walking or running. My friend has a book all about this and I am going to try to get it from him, it sounds very interesting. In the same way, matter is arranged through energy in different combinations of frequencies(rhythms, beats, tempos) or different arrangements of matter(notes, melodies, or instruments)

Things like music and the cornstarch/water experiment just happen to be effect that we can perceive with our senses, as opposed to the way most things vibrate, which cannot be perceived. For example we can't see the forces that are at work in something solid like a table. The molecules of solid things vibrate too fast for us to be able to see, our senses allow us to only perceive "the tip of the iceberg" compared to what there is. Water is more expressive of such forces as we can see things like large waves moving through water but still cannot see the vibrations of the water itself. My project really only touches on the tip of the iceberg of this topic so I want to try and modify it to represent these ideas better.