Lycopodium powder “dances” on subwoofer in this incredibly cool video #MusicMonday
Geek.com posted about this awesome video featuring lycopodium powder on top of a subwoofer.
Sometimes the simplest of elements can be combined to create the most interesting of results. And I’m not talking about the old baking soda-plus-vinegar volcano, this is the combination of nothing more than an active subwoofer cone and a dust-like powder. The two were all it took to create this incredibly cool video, though the addition of a Red Epic camera certainly helped.
The video, entitled The Essence of Sound, features lycopodium powder dancing around on top of a subwoofer. Lycopodium is better known as flash powder, as in the stuff that was used in the pyrotechnic explosions that lit old-timey photographs. It’s still used to in laboratory settings, for instance when it’s necessary to make sound waves visible (as we see here). Basically, lycopodium is the best way possible to make a fireball on a budget, but it’s also quite handy for other things as well.
Below the powder is a subwoofer doing exactly what subwoofers do. As the subwoofer bounces the powder hypnotically moves creating the incredible forms we see. The patterns aren’t quite as regular as one would expect, so it’s likely that there is more too the situation than just a speaker with some dust on it, but that’s essentially what we’re looking at.
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