Jules
A. LISSAJOUS Born: 4 March 1822 in Versailles,
France Died: 24 June 1880 in Plombières, FranceJules
Lissajous entered the École Normale Supérieure in 1841. Afterwards
he became professor of mathematics at the Lycée Saint-Louis. In 1850
he was awarded a doctorate for a thesis on vibrating bars using Chladni's
sand pattern method to determine nodal positions. Lissajous
was awarded the Lacaze Prizein
1873 for his work on the optical observation of vibration. In 1874 Lissajous
became rector of the Academy at Chambéry, then in 1875 he was appointed
rector of the Academy at Besançon. Lissajous was interested in waves
and developed an optical method for studying vibrations. At first he studied
waves produced by a tuning fork in contact with water. In 1855 he described
a way of studying acoustic vibrations by reflecting a light beam from a mirror
attached to a vibrating object onto a screen. He obtained Lissajous figures
by successively reflecting light from mirrors on two tuning forks vibrating
at right angles. The curves are only seen because of persistence of vision in
the human eye. Lissajous studied beats seen when his tuning forks had slightly
different frequencies. |