The interactive periodic table of elements

How to sonify the periodic table of elements#

Each sound are made from the different features of the periodic table, like the period or the group (see the script make_sounds.py for more information).

The sounds are created from a fundamental frequency, and overtones that are multiples of the fundamental frequency. The fundamental frequency f of a given period is obtained from

fundamental_frequency = element_period * f0

where f0 is the lowest fundamental frequency. The overtones are obtained from

overtone = element_group * fundamental_frequency

After sine-wave generation, the sounds are shaped with a Tukey window, and an exponential decay in order to mimick the attack and decay of instruments. The sound is saved as a WAV file, and then converted to an MP3 file using ffmpeg.

Several overtones are added depending on the block of the element. The d-block elements have one overtone, the f-block elements have two overtones, and the p-block elements have three overtones. The amplitude of the overtones is reduced as the overtone number increases.

Finally, the waveform is shaped with a Tukey window, with an exponential decay to reduce the volume over time. The sound is saved as a WAV file, and then converted to an MP3 file using ffmpeg.

Potential improvements#

One notable issue is the click sound that may appear when the pointer leaves and re-enters the element before the fade-out of the sound. This is due to the fact that the sound is stopped and restarted when the pointer leaves and re-enters the element. I tried to have an "emergency" fade-out of the sound when the pointer leaves and re-enters the element, but it did not work. If you have any idea on how to solve this issue, please let me know!

• melodic-table_module.json — Agentic module schema role assignments