How it works
Light is 40 octaves above sound. Here is what the elements sound like.
光比声音高 40 个八度。把每个元素的光谱降下来，这就是它们的声音。
Light, forty octaves down
把光降低 40 个八度
Heat an element in a flame or an electric discharge and it glows at a handful of exact wavelengths — its emission spectrum, as individual as a fingerprint. Elementa takes the frequency of each of those lines and halves it forty times. That is exactly 40 octaves down, from hundreds of terahertz to hundreds of hertz:
把一种元素放进火焰或放电管里加热，它只会在少数几个精确的波长上发光——这就是它的发射光谱，像指纹一样独一无二。元素之声把每条谱线的频率连续减半 40 次，也就是整整降低 40 个八度，从几百太赫兹降到几百赫兹：
f = c / λ / 240 ≈ 272 659.7 / λnm Hz
Visible light, 380–780 nm, lands between 718 Hz and 350 Hz: every colour we can see fits in about one octave. Hydrogen’s red line at 656.5 nm becomes 415.3 Hz, a G♯. Red sounds low and violet sounds high; in stereo, red sits on the left and violet on the right — the same as on every spectrum strip here.
可见光 380–780 nm 落在 718 Hz 到 350 Hz 之间：我们看得见的所有颜色，只占大约一个八度。氢的红线 656.5 nm 变成 415.3 Hz，是一个 G♯。红色低沉、紫色高亢；在立体声里，红在左、紫在右——和这里每一条光谱条的方向一致。
Hear the beat
听见“拍”
Sodium’s famous yellow light is really two lines, 589.16 and 589.76 nm. Forty octaves down they become 462.8 and 462.3 Hz — so close that together they swell and fade about once every two seconds: a 0.5 Hz beat. Headphones help.
钠那著名的黄光其实是两条谱线：589.16 nm 和 589.76 nm。降低 40 个八度后是 462.8 Hz 和 462.3 Hz，两者靠得极近，同时响起时声音大约每两秒起伏一次——这就是 0.5 Hz 的“拍”。戴上耳机听得更清楚。
Magnified: the two D lines, 0.6 nm apart.放大后的两条 D 线，相距 0.6 nm。
Playing
玩法
- Tap an element to hear it; drag across the table to strum.
- Strum plays the lines from red to violet, 65 ms apart. Chord plays them all at once.
- Keyboard: type a symbol (N, Na, Fe…) to play it. Arrow keys move, Space replays, Enter opens the details.
- Ear Test: five mystery elements a day — the same puzzle for everyone, on the web and on iPhone.
- Spell: type any word and hear it spelled in elements. Share it as a link or a picture.
- 点一下元素就能听到它；在周期表上滑动可以连续弹奏。
- 琶音从红到紫依次奏出每条谱线，间隔 65 毫秒；和弦则同时奏出。
- 键盘：输入元素符号（N、Na、Fe……）即可演奏；方向键移动，空格重播，回车打开详情。
- 听音测验：每天五个神秘元素——网页和 iPhone 上，所有人的题目都一样。
- 元素拼写：输入任意英文单词，听它被元素符号拼出来，并以链接或图片分享。
Settings
The data
数据
Wavelengths and intensities come from the NIST Atomic Spectra Database — the Handbook of Basic Atomic Spectroscopic Data by J. E. Sansonetti and W. C. Martin, strong-lines tables. Air wavelengths are converted to vacuum (Ciddor), and neutral-atom lines are preferred. Each element keeps up to 8 visible lines (12 from ultraviolet to infrared). A line within 0.06–0.7 semitones of a stronger chosen line is skipped so chords stay clear, but fine-structure doublets closer than 0.06 semitones are kept, so you can hear them beat.
波长与强度来自美国国家标准与技术研究院（NIST）原子光谱数据库——J. E. Sansonetti 与 W. C. Martin 编写的 Handbook of Basic Atomic Spectroscopic Data 强谱线表。空气中的波长已换算为真空波长（Ciddor 公式），并优先采用中性原子的谱线。每种元素最多保留 8 条可见光谱线（紫外到红外共 12 条）。如果一条谱线与已选中的更强谱线相差 0.06–0.7 个半音，就跳过它，让和弦保持清晰；而相差不到 0.06 个半音的精细结构双线会保留下来，让你听见“拍”。
Some elements have only one or two strong visible lines — palladium, aluminium, chlorine — and that is the physics, not a gap. Astatine, francium and the elements from fermium onward have no lines in these tables, so they stay silent. The small dot on each tile is the element’s spectral hue: its visible lines mixed as the eye would see them, weighted by intensity.
有些元素只有一两条强可见光谱线——钯、铝、氯——这是物理事实，并非数据缺失。砹、钫以及从镄开始的元素在这些表中没有谱线，因此保持安静。每个方块角上的小圆点是该元素的光谱色：把它的可见光谱线按强度、按人眼的感知方式混合后的颜色。
Credits
致谢
Inspired by W. Walker Smith’s musical periodic table (ACS Spring 2023) and Atom Tones (Skidmore, 2019). Spectral data: NIST. Colours: Dan Bruton’s wavelength-to-RGB approximation.
灵感来自 W. Walker Smith 的“音乐元素周期表”（美国化学会 2023 年春季会议）和 Atom Tones（Skidmore，2019）。光谱数据：NIST。颜色：Dan Bruton 的波长–RGB 近似算法。
Made by a chemistry student. Contact: 3528872473@qq.com. Elementa collects nothing: no accounts, no analytics, no cookies.
由一名化学系学生制作。联系邮箱：3528872473@qq.com。元素之声不收集任何数据：没有账号、没有统计、没有 Cookie。