A popular internet meme loosely compares the sine waves of harmonic frequencies with the physical structure of a conch shell. I say “loosely” because if you really study the two images, you can see that there’s not a direct correlation. Still, there’s an intriguing similarity here that I wanted to explore. And because I couldn’t find a sharp enough image of the harmonic waves on the top, I made my own. Below is an animated GIF I created to show how each wave overlays. They start and end on the assumed mese or center line, and once they’re all overlaid, you can see that the black waves all meet at the mese point on the mese line, marked with a black dot.
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Harmonics and the conch shell
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A popular internet meme loosely compares the sine waves of harmonic frequencies with the physical structure of a conch shell. I say “loosely” because if you really study the two images, you can see that there’s not a direct correlation. Still, there’s an intriguing similarity here that I wanted to explore. And because I couldn’t find a sharp enough image of the harmonic waves on the top, I made my own. Below is an animated GIF I created to show how each wave overlays. They start and end on the assumed mese or center line, and once they’re all overlaid, you can see that the black waves all meet at the mese point on the mese line, marked with a black dot.