In his famous 1787-experiment, Chladni drew a bow over a piece of centrally fixed metal plate covered with sand, and the vibration of the plate caused the sand to move and accumulate around the nodal lines where the surface remained still, forming Chladni figures. The experiments by Chladni are a corner stone of modern acoustics. However, the motion of particles before they settle to the nodal lines is still not very well understood, and only hypothetical models have been put forward. Chladni had visited the Paris Academy in 1808 and had demonstrated the vibration patterns before an audience that included not only the leading French scientists but Napoleon himself; Napoleon set a prize for the best mathematical explanation but no satisfactory explanations came out of it. Napoleon famously remarked "Chaldni mhas made sound visible" (Dibner).

Variations of this technique are still commonly used in the design and construction of acoustic instruments such as violins, guitars, and cellos. Since the 20th century, it has become more common to place a loudspeaker driven by an electronic signal generator over or under the plate to achieve a more accurate adjustable frequency.

In quantum mechanics, Chladni figures ("nodal patterns") are known to be related to the solutions of the Schrödinger equation for one-electron atoms, and the mathematics describing them was used by Erwin Schrödinger to arrive at the understanding of electron orbitals.

Dibner 150
PMM 233
Norman 480
Sparrow 39