Acoustics

E.F.F. Chladni’s experiments and observations with sound and vibrations profoundly influenced the development of the field of Acoustics. The famous Chladni diagrams along with other observations are contained in Die Akustik, published in German in 1802 and Traité d’Acoustique, a greatly expanded version, published in French in 1809. This is the first comprehensive translation of the expanded French version of Traité d’Acoustique, using the 1802 German publication for reference and clarification. The translation was undertaken by Robert T. Beyer, PhD (1920-2008), noted acoustician, Professor of Physics at Brown University, and Gold Medal recipient of the Acoustical Society of America. Along with many other projects completed over the course of his career, Dr. Beyer translated Von Neumann’s seminal work, Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics from the original German, spent 30 years translating Russian physics treatises and journals, served as editor of the English translation of the Soviet Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics, and also authored Sounds of our Times: Two Hundred Years of Acoustics.

This book contains selected and expanded contributions presented at the 15th Conference on Acoustics and Vibration of Mechanical Structures held in Timisoara, Romania, May 30-31, 2019. The conference focused on a broad range of topics related to acoustics and vibration, such as analytical approaches to nonlinear noise and vibration problems, environmental and occupational noise, structural vibration, biomechanics and bioacoustics, as well as experimental approaches to vibration problems in industrial processes.

Principles of Musical Acoustics focuses on the basic principles in the science and technology of music. Musical examples and specific musical instruments demonstrate the principles. The book begins with a study of vibrations and waves, in that order. These topics constitute the basic physical properties of sound, one of two pillars supporting the science of musical acoustics. The second pillar is the human element, the physiological and psychological aspects of acoustical science. The perceptual topics include loudness, pitch, tone color, and localization of sound. With these two pillars in place, it is possible to go in a variety of directions. The book treats in turn, the topics of room acoustics, audio both analog and digital, broadcasting, and speech. It ends with chapters on the traditional musical instruments, organized by family.

Research and scientific progress are based upqn intuition coordinated with a wide theoretical knowledge, experimental skill, and a realistic sense of the limitations of technology. Only a deep insight into physical phenomena will supply the necessary skills to handle the problems that arise in acoustics. The acoustician today needs to be well acquainted with mathematics, dynamics, hydrodynamics, and physics; he also needs a good knowledge of statistics, signal processing, electrical theory, and of many other specialized subjects. Acquiring this background is a laborious task and would require the study of many different books. It is the goal of this volume to present this background in as thorough and readable a manner as possible so that the reader may turn to specialized publications or chapters of other books for further information without having to start at the preliminaries. In trying to accomplish this goal, mathematics serves only as a tool; the better our understanding of a physical phenomenon, the less mathematics is needed and the shorter and more concise are our computa tions. A word about the choice of subjects for this volume will be helpful to the reader. Even scientists of high standing are frequently not acquainted with the fundamentals needed in the field of acoustics. Chapters I to IX are devoted to these fundamentals. After studying Chapter I, which dis­ cusses the units and their relationships, the reader should have no difficulty converting from one system of units to any other.

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