Acoustics

Acoustics is a branch of continuum mechanics that deals with the study of mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including topics such as vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician while someone working in the field of acoustics technology may be called an acoustical engineer. The application of acoustics is present in almost all aspects of modern society with the most obvious being the audio and noise control industries. Quotes The nature of combination tones bore on a central issue of contemporary acoustics, namely, the relevance of Fourier analysis to the perception of sounds, on which Ohm and Thomas Seebeck famously disagreed. Helmholtz's main goal was to put an end to the controversy and to base the science of acoustics on non-controversial facts. However, the lack of experimental facilities at Bonn, where he had been recently appointed, prompted him to work on the more mathematical aspects. Among the acoustic systems in urgent need of a better theory were resonant cavities, which played a central role in the production and detection of monochromatic sounds, and organ pipes, which Helmholtz used to produce strong, sustained tones in his acoustic experiments. Olivier Darrigol Worlds of Flow: A History of Hydrodynamics from the Bernoullis to Prandtl 2005 Oxford University Press 147 External links Category:Sound