A clear glass globe sits atop a base which is a powerful rheostat-controlled acoustic emitter.
The two thirds full globe contains a seemingly random mix of dry beach sand. The majority of the sand is clear with each darker shade being comprised of denser grains than the next lighter shade.

When the emitter is switched on the sound waves will cause the sand to become fluidized and the colors will roughly sort themselves into layers of descending darkness.
As volume and frequency are increased cymatic shapes will emerge as the darkest of the grains are suspended within converging wave node patterns.

Sudden cessation of sound will cause the patterns to retain their shapes while un-powered, and programmable lights in the base illuminate these patterns for an added level of customization.
Containers of different shapes will create different patterns.

Theremin attachment sold separately.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Dec 25 2011

Cymatic research http://www.rexresea...matics/cymatics.htm
[Ling, Dec 28 2011]

Globe should slowly rotate around different axes to allow distortion of the patterns.
-- pocmloc, Dec 26 2011


Needs to be mounted on a gyro-scope to add to effect and complexity - good one 2 fries [+]
-- xenzag, Dec 26 2011


Brilliant! I want one! [+]
-- Grogster, Dec 26 2011


This could and should be made. [+]
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Dec 26 2011


Good one. I'd buy the theremin attachment. [+]
-- AusCan531, Dec 27 2011


Iron-Chlad. +
-- csea, Dec 27 2011


Glad y'sall like it, and that the autoboner dosen't. I think you are right about twisting the finished shapes around [pocmloc].
Having thought about it a bit though, the emitter may need to be mounted to the base so as to be centered within the sphere to make coherent patterns.

Anybody know for sure?
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Dec 28 2011


Differing locations of the excitation source will excite different modes of the resonant globe, so a variable attachment point should be considered.
-- csea, Dec 28 2011


Or more than one source of excitation so you can use the interference patterns.
-- AusCan531, Dec 28 2011


Maybe the autoboner doesn't like entertainment or desk toys to be a valid purpose. He/she really wants a real world problem solved by this.
-- wjt, Dec 29 2011


Well crap.
There's just no pleasing some folks.

Wait.
hmmmmmm...

What if the heaviest granules consisted of carbon mixed with copper or somesuch instead of silica, and the atmosphere within the sphere contained an inert gas like Argon, 'and' the temperature was lowered until the carbon super-conducted, *and then* running a high voltage current through the suspended shape resulted in a Fullerene structure of unsurpassed strength and flexability allowing us to finally build a viable space-elevator?

<draws breath>

Then, oh then, would the autoboner be satisfied?
Would their insatiable need to share the overflowing abundance of fish-meal garnered from the stymied stream be sated allowing them to come out from under that eureka-less bridge to join us feckless dreamers basking within the muse filled light of spiritual innovativeness and unabashed bread-itude?

<sigh>
Oh just think of the world we could weave.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Dec 30 2011


I like it: a more scientific snow-globe. You'd want to make the beads out of something other than sand though, to mitigate scratching of the interior surface of the sphere.
-- FlyingToaster, Dec 30 2011


// rheostat-controlled acoustic emitter //

So, a loudspeaker with a volume knob, then?

I'd make the sand container vertically cylindrical meself, but each to their own.
-- BunsenHoneydew, Jun 06 2014



random, halfbakery