To me they are just a visual interest. In fact, harmonographs are patterns drawn by pendulums so that the swing amplitude decays. These don't decay so probably are not strictly Harmongrpahs. I can take the XY data of the Pattern and use it to cut the exact pattern in to wood or metal. They might make nice coasters to rest my coffee on.. There are an infinite number of patterns from this one 'device', just by entering different gear ratios and diffeent link lengths - taking seconds!
I had no idea what an harmonograph was so I looked it up on Wiki. The math successfully melted my 6 cell brain. Very impressive video now I know what Im looking at. My question though, is, do these have any practical use in mechanical engineering or are they just something of visual interest ?
To me they are just a visual interest. In fact, harmonographs are patterns drawn by pendulums so that the swing amplitude decays. These don't decay so probably are not strictly Harmongrpahs. I can take the XY data of the Pattern and use it to cut the exact pattern in to wood or metal. They might make nice coasters to rest my coffee on.. There are an infinite number of patterns from this one 'device', just by entering different gear ratios and diffeent link lengths - taking seconds!
I had no idea what an harmonograph was so I looked it up on Wiki. The math successfully melted my 6 cell brain. Very impressive video now I know what Im looking at.
My question though, is, do these have any practical use in mechanical engineering or are they just something of visual interest ?