A figure or graph of the type most often seen on an oscilloscope. The simplest Lissajous figures are circles or ellipses, but they can also take the form of lemniscates and other, more complex shapes. They are named for the French scientist Jules Antoine Lissajous (1822-1880), who experimented with them in the 1850s, and are also known as Bowditch curves, because they had been written about earlier by the American astronomer and mathematician Nathanial Bowditch (1773-1838).
