This exhibit lets you easily see interference patterns that are produced by waves (think about sound and light waves)  The regions which appear dark are where areas of destructive interference are occurring. In the case of light waves, these would be dark areas and in the case of sound they would be low volume areas.  The regions that appear light are where constructive interference is occurring.  In the case of light waves these would be bright regions, and in the case of sound these would be loud (high volume) areas.  If these were patterns in silk or cloth or screens (some kind of physical patterns) they would be called Moiré patterns (Moiré is a French word meaning watered, as in Moiré silk).

This was created by Raman Pfaff. If you would like more information, please contact him at pfaff@explorescience.com