{"id":1212,"date":"2011-12-21T22:59:02","date_gmt":"2011-12-22T04:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sector67.org\/blog\/?p=1212"},"modified":"2011-12-21T22:59:02","modified_gmt":"2011-12-22T04:59:02","slug":"laser-display","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sector67.org\/blog\/2011\/laser-display\/","title":{"rendered":"Laser Display"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the past few weeks I\u2019ve been working in spare time on a project that I originally did in high school. I wanted to\u00a0resurrect\u00a0it so that I could possibly take it to schools and give demonstrations. However, another opportunity has presented itself which offers much more visibility. I\u2019ll be demonstrating this project to the Madison Children\u2019s Museum<\/a>, with the hope of turning it into an exhibit there.<\/p>\n

The idea behind the project is to turn sound into light and see the sound waves. To accomplish this, a mirror is attached to a speaker. When a laser shines on the mirror, the speaker vibrates it and changes the angle of the mirror slightly, but enough to see. This alone is enough to see the effects of sound waves. The next step in my machine is to shine the reflected beam onto a laser attached at an angle to a motor. As the motor spins, the mirror rotates, and since it is at an angle it makes the reflected beam spin in a circle. This spreads out the wave over a circle, so you can see the waveform as actual waves. See the video for a demonstration.<\/p>\n