Born in Wittenberg in Germany, Chladni was forced to study law by his father and obtained his degree from Leipzig in 1782. When his father died, Chladni turned to science. He is noted for his work on acoustics, being the first to analyze sound in a rigorous mathematical way. For this he invented the sand-pattern technique, in which thin metal plates covered in sand are made to vibrate. The sand collects in the nodal lines producing symmetrical patterns (called Chladni's figures).

Chladni also had a great interest in music and designed two musical instruments: the euphonium and the clavicylinder. He also measured the speed of sound in gases other than air by filling organ pipes with the gas and measuring the change in pitch.

Chladni was one of the first scientists to believe that meteorites fell from the sky but his opinion was treated with disdain until Jean Baptiste Biot proved him to be correct in 1803.