Lissajous figure

English

A Lissajous figure on an oscilloscope

Etymology

Named after French mathematician Jules Antoine Lissajous (1822–1880), who invented an apparatus that projected such figures onto a wall.

Noun

Lissajous figure (plural Lissajous figures)

1. (mathematics) A plane curve traced by a point which executes two perpendicular independent harmonic motions, the frequencies of which are in a simple ratio.
   • 1966 March, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 3, in The Crying of Lot 49, Philadelphia, Pa.; New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC, page 30:

     The Scope proved to be a haunt for electronics assembly people from Yoyodyne. The green neon sign outside ingeniously depicted the face of an oscilloscope tube, over which flowed an ever-changing dance of Lissajous figures.

Synonyms

• Lissajous curve

Related terms

• Lissajous knot
• Lissajous orbit

Translations

plane curve

• Catalan: corba de Lissajous f
• Finnish: Lissajous’n kuvio
• Russian: фигу́ра Лиссажу́ f (figúra Lissažú)

See also

• harmonograph