Endless Patterns

Wave patterns: Bulge

Draw rows of waves from the curves of trigonometry and signal processing, in lines or filled bands. Every repeat holds whole waves, so its edges always meet.

Bulge

Wave

Lines swell apart around each lens and crowd together between them, an op-art bulge. The lenses sit in a square grid, the same number down as across; more lines show the curve better.

Second wave

The second wave is added to the first, point by point, for a wave riding on a wave.

Colors

Lines and bands alternate the line and accent colors. Filled bands are outlined in the background color.

More palettes
Printing

Sources

  • Jules Antoine Lissajous, Mémoire sur l'étude optique des mouvements vibratoires, Annales de chimie et de physique, 3rd series, 51, 1857. The Lissajous figures in the wave pattern maker are named for his study of two vibrations at right angles.
Acknowledgements