Lissajous curve


Named after Jules Antoine Lissajous, a Lissajous curve, also known as Lissajous figure or Bowditch curve, is the graph of a system of parametric equations
which describe complex harmonic motion. This family of curves was investigated by Nathaniel Bowditch in 1815, and later in more detail by Jules Antoine Lissajous in 1857.
The appearance of the figure is highly sensitive to the ratio. For a ratio of 1, the figure is an ellipse, with special cases including circles and lines. Another simple Lissajous figure is the parabola. Other ratios produce more complicated curves, which are closed only if is rational. The visual form of these curves is often suggestive of a three-dimensional knot, and indeed many kinds of knots, including those known as Lissajous knots, project to the plane as Lissajous figures.
Visually, the ratio determines the number of "lobes" of the figure. For example, a ratio of or produces a figure with three major lobes. Similarly, a ratio of produces a figure with five horizontal lobes and four vertical lobes. Rational ratios produce closed or "still" figures, while irrational ratios produce figures that appear to rotate. The ratio determines the relative width-to-height ratio of the curve. For example, a ratio of produces a figure that is twice as wide as it is high. Finally, the value of determines the apparent "rotation" angle of the figure, viewed as if it were actually a three-dimensional curve. For example, produces and components that are exactly in phase, so the resulting figure appears as an apparent three-dimensional figure viewed from straight on. In contrast, any non-zero produces a figure that appears to be rotated, either as a left–right or an up–down rotation.
, displaying a 1:3 relationship between the frequencies of the vertical and horizontal sinusoidal inputs, respectively. This particular Lissajous figure was adapted into the logo for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Lissajous figures where, and
are Chebyshev polynomials of the first kind of degree. This property is exploited to produce a set of points, called Padua points, at which a function may be sampled in order to compute either a bivariate interpolation or quadrature of the function over the domain.
The relation of some Lissajous curves to Chebyshev polynomials is clearer to understand if the Lissajous curve which generates each of them is expressed using cosine functions rather than sine functions.

Examples

The animation shows the curve adaptation with continuously increasing fraction from 0 to 1 in steps of 0.01.
Below are examples of Lissajous figures with an odd natural number, an even natural number, and.

Generation

Prior to modern electronic equipment, Lissajous curves could be generated mechanically by means of a harmonograph.

Practical application

Lissajous curves can also be generated using an oscilloscope. An octopus circuit can be used to demonstrate the waveform images on an oscilloscope. Two phase-shifted sinusoid inputs are applied to the oscilloscope in X-Y mode and the phase relationship between the signals is presented as a Lissajous figure.
In the professional audio world, this method is used for realtime analysis of the phase relationship between the left and right channels of a stereo audio signal. On larger, more sophisticated audio mixing consoles an oscilloscope may be built-in for this purpose.
On an oscilloscope, we suppose is CH1 and is CH2, is the amplitude of CH1 and is the amplitude of CH2, is the frequency of CH1 and is the frequency of CH2, so is the ratio of frequencies of the two channels, and is the phase shift of CH1.
A purely mechanical application of a Lissajous curve with, is in the driving mechanism of the Mars Light type of oscillating beam lamps popular with railroads in the mid-1900s. The beam in some versions traces out a lopsided figure-8 pattern on its side.

Application for the case of

When the input to an LTI system is sinusoidal, the output is sinusoidal with the same frequency, but it may have a different amplitude and some phase shift. Using an oscilloscope that can plot one signal against another to plot the output of an LTI system against the input to the LTI system produces an ellipse that is a Lissajous figure for the special case of. The aspect ratio of the resulting ellipse is a function of the phase shift between the input and output, with an aspect ratio of 1 corresponding to a phase shift of ±90° and an aspect ratio of ∞ corresponding to a phase shift of 0° or 180°.
The figure below summarizes how the Lissajous figure changes over different phase shifts. The phase shifts are all negative so that delay semantics can be used with a causal LTI system. The arrows show the direction of rotation of the Lissajous figure.
to be measured..

In engineering

A Lissajous curve is used in experimental tests to determine if a device may be properly categorized as a memristor. It is also used to compare two different electrical signals: a known reference signal and a signal to be tested.

In culture

In film

Lissajous figures were sometimes displayed on oscilloscopes meant to simulate high-tech equipment in science-fiction TV shows and movies in the 1960s and 1970s.
The title sequence by John Whitney for Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 film Vertigo is based on Lissajous figures.
In a sequence towards the end of an episode of Columbo entitled "Make me a Perfect Murder", the detective sits watching Lissajous curves displayed to music on monitors in a TV outside broadcast van.

Company logos

Lissajous figures are sometimes used in graphic design as logos. Examples include:
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