Product Description

This textbook treats the broad range of modern acoustics from the basics of wave propagation in solids and fluids to applications such as noise control and cancellation, underwater acoustics, music and music synthesis, sonoluminescence, and medical diagnostics with ultrasound. The discussion begins with a historical overview. It then turns to a derivation of the wave equation from the fundamental equations of motion for fluids and for solids, with solutions of the equation in open air and in bounded media such as strings, bars, membranes, and pipes. Sound filters and electric analogs for sound propagation are also treated. A chapter on measurement techniques provides a comprehensive survey of the means of evaluating sound levels and frequency content of signals. A section of the physiology of hearing and psychoacoustics includes recent findings on how the human ear functions. The remainder of the book deals with a wide variety of applications including architectural acoustics; enclosures and barriers; noise codes and regulations;, and methods of noise control; underwater acoustics; ultrasound; vibration control; and music, musical instruments, and reproduction of music. The new edition is up-to-date and forward-looking in approach. Chapter 2 now covers fluid-fluid interface effects, with additional information on newest measurement techniques. Updates are provided on the use of ultrasound in industry, and deeper coverage is provided on medical uses of ultrasound. The chapter on music and musical instruments has been broken up into two chapters, one chapter covering music and musical instruments and the other covering sound reproduction and including the latest devices such MP3®; iPod®; 5.1-, 6.1-, and 7.1-channel systems; and THX® and Iosono® theater systems. Additional coverage of the opto-acoustics and sonoluminescence phenomena is included. New problems have been added throughout.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #931066 in Books
• Published on: 2006-01-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 660 pages

Review
Some praise for the previous edition:   JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA Review by Uwe J. Hansen, Indiana State University "While coming to us as a survey, [the book] nevertheless prepares us with a thorough and mathematically rigorous theoretical basis before embarking on the journey through the acoustical archipelago … In such an all-encompassing text, the depth of several individual topics covered at an introductory graduate level is truly astounding. … In summary, this is a remarkable text at the advanced undergraduate or introductory graduate level. Its strength lies in its breadth of coverage, in its level of sophistication, and in its didactic value. Many concepts introduced in the chapters are illustrated by applied example problems with solutions. Additional problems at the end of each chapter are carefully chosen to provide practical computational exercises while demanding conceptual understanding. References include relevant texts, summary monographs, and current journal articles. The structure of the second half of the book as relatively independent chapters lends itself nicely to course construction. Chapters with less relevance to a particular field can easily be omitted and others can readily be enhanced with the use of the reference section at the end of each chapter." JOURNAL OF THE AUDIO ENGINEERING SOCIETY Review by Neil A. Shaw "… Very comprehensive and adept … Daniel R. Raichel […] has produced what is the next step in the natural evolution of a general introductory acoustics text. His presentation of the material is very effective, especially in the way the concepts in one chapter segue into the next. The presentation throughout the book is very clear and straightforward with case studies and examples that are quite lucid. The Science and Applications of Acoustics is recommended for all who want a good introductory text to the subject. Many practitioners will also benefit from some of the more esoteric material."   THE PHYSICIST Review by Neville Fletcher, Australian National University "Acoustics is a wide-ranging subject, and this book attempts the ambitious task of giving an account, not just of the basic theory, but also of most of its major applications. The target readership is at advanced undergraduate or early graduate level, and the pedagogical aim is reinforced by inclusion of an occasional worked example and a dozen or so problems at the end of each chapter. The problems are, however, not intrusive, and the book can also be regarded as a useful information source. … For anyone who wants a broad and up-to-date introduction to the many applied aspects of acoustics, I can recommend this book. It would also be a good text for a graduate-level survey course."

About the Author
Professor Raichel is Lifetime Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers International, Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America, and the author or co-author of nearly 200 publications in the fields of acoustics, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, and energy transfer. He is registered as a Professional Engineer in five states, and has nearly twenty years of experience in teaching acoustics, thermodynamics, and other mechanical engineering courses to undergraduate and graduate students, and a nearly equal amount of experience in the aerospace industry. Dr. Raichel also served as visiting researcher on pyrotechnic shocks and underwater acoustics at Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and at the U.S. Navy’s David Taylor Basin, respectively. He is also a principal acoustician with Eilar Associates, an environmental consulting company in Encinitas, California.

Customer Reviews

An excellent undergraduate textbook on acoustics
This is a good up-to-date engineering text on acoustics for upper division college students. There are plenty of good exercises at the ends of the chapters.

The author points out that acoustics has changed in the past twenty years to encompass ultrasonics and infrasonics. There are a number of new "applications in materials science, medicine, dentistry, oceanography, marine navigation, communications, petroleum and mineral prospecting, industrial processes, music and voice synthesis, animal bioacoustics, and noise control." And of course, improvements are being made in more classical parts of this field.

To use this text, you ought to have studied lower division physics for engineers, calculus, and ordinary and partial differential equations.

I like the fact that the book includes chapters on psychoacoustics, noise control, underwater acoustics, ultrasonics, and musical instruments. Not all acoustics texts cover all this! It makes this one of the more comprehensive acoustics books. Still, I would have liked to see even more material, perhaps on topics such as shock waves or second sound in liquid helium.

This is a well-written textbook. I'd be happy to teach a class using it.

Great material for the study of general and musical acoustics
This is an excellent general book on acoustics at the upper undergraduate to graduate level aimed at the mathematically mature. The reader should already have a knowledge of calculus, ordinary differential equations, and partial differential equations. However, unlike Kinser's book on the subject, it looks at both the forest and the trees. In most chapters the book will discuss a subject for a few paragraphs, show relevant equations, and then illustrate with a numerical example that solves a practical problem in acoustics so that the reader can join theory and practice. Chapters one through nine should probably be read in sequence, since the author is covering the basics of acoustics that is common to all disciplines. From that point forward, though, you can pick and choose what you're interested in. The later chapters have subject matter on architectural acoustics, noise and vibration control, ultrasonics, and even a short concluding chapter on nonlinear acoustics.

My personal interest was in finding a good book on acoustics that covers subject matter that is of interest to musicians but keeps the mathematics of the engineering texts on the subject while managing to not become a jungle of equations in the process. This book seems to be the one I've been looking for. Just about all of the chapters minus the ones on ultrasonics and machinery noise will be of use to students of musical acoustics, plus the longest chapter in the book focuses specifically on the physics of musical instruments and is a very good companion to "The Physics of Musical Instruments". This chapter discusses musical notation and musical instruments including strings, wind instruments, percussion instruments, and electronic instruments, as well as recording equipment, and playback audio equipment. However, this chapter is not particularly quantitative in its treatment of the subject and it also has no end of chapter exercises like most of the other chapters in the book, probably because it was written as a general textbook, not as one specifically for students of musical acoustics. I would recommend this as a good textbook for readers that want a good grounding in the basics and mathematics of general acoustics and also for those who want to learn something specifically about musical acoustics.