Source: http://www.acoustics.org
With us not being that bright, here at HandPans Magazine, we never fail to be impressed when boffins in white coats, are able to reveal the hidden world unseen by human eyes, using high-tech, and expensive equipment.
If you’ve done any amount of research on the PANArt Hang, or HandPan in general, before finding yourself here, you’re probably aware that the Hang belongs to the ‘Idiophone’ class of musical instruments. A type of musical instrument that creates sound primarily by way of the instruments vibrating, without the use of strings or membranes. Meaning essentially, that when struck, the distinctive, and beautiful sound of the Hanghang is created by the entire steel shell vibrating, and creating sound waves as it does so.
Which is all well and good. It’s not that hard to imagine it, and anybody who’s ever played a Hang, or a HandPan, will have felt these vibrations when playing. But, there’s a very real difference between imagining, and feeling, and actually seeing the Hang’s vibrations in action.
Using ‘Holographic Interferometry’, (a process we don’t really understand but that you can read about by clicking the link), Physicists have been able to take some interesting pictures of the Hang’s vibrations in action. Combined with some info for those who unlike us, like to do more than just look at pretty pictures.
