Box 1-1 Kinds of Acoustics Ultrasonics: vibrations too fast for the ear to detect, nevertheless Useful for calling dogs, detecting burglars, and removing dirt from small machine parts. Solid-state physicists use ultrasonic waves to study details of crystal structure. Infrasonics: vibrations too slow for the ear to detect, used by at- ‘mospheric physicists to study blast waves or weather systems. Underwater Sound: useful in detecting submerged objects, whether ‘schools of fish or submarines, with sonar devices. Structural Vibration: building motion caused by wind, earthquake, or trampling of feet. Physiological Acoustics: mechanisms of ear and nerve operation and their pathology, often involving experiments on animals, Psychological Acoustics: human perception of sound; judgments, ‘comparisons, and reactions to various sounds. ‘Speech and Hearing: organization of sounds for human communica- tion; strong emphasis on therapy for correcting such problems as stuttering, aphasia, and deafness. Noise Measurement and Contrel: rapidly burgeoning activity in re- ‘sponse to concerns about environmental noise, including aircraft, highway traffic, industrial machinery, and rock concerts. Architectural Acoustics: designs and materials for improving homes, offices, and concert halls. Musical Acoustics: mechanisms of sound production by musical instruments; effects of reproduction processes or room design on musical sounds; human perception of sound as music. The first four of these areas lie outside our scope. But clearly the next five are relevant to our study, even though most of the experi- ments are not done for musical reasons. Relatively few scientists have studied musical acoustics for its own sake, but these few have given us many important insights. 100 Hz 500Hz 1000Hz S5kHz 10 kHz Ficune 3-1, Diagram ofthe outer ear (ab,<), middle ear (def), inner | car (gh, and the auditory nerve (k). Points of frequency response ‘on the basilar membrane are approximate.345678910 Figure 7.6 (a)(b) Ten lowest members of the harmonic series based on fundamentals 110 Hz (A) and 78 Hz (E}). (c) More complete version of the harmonic series based on 32.7 Hz (C,, fundamental not shown). Open note heads indicate harmonics (such as seventh, eleventh, and s0 on) whose pitches do not fall close to any note of the equal-tempered scale, and so Bannot be accurately represented by the usual musical notation. a Fee 16 Tie histamine present at the same time. Notice how maxi ating Wave correspond 10 in-phase a lites ‘combinations to in-phase and out-of-phaseFelatve ‘mode energy ‘evel Relative ede energy level (10 (b) Fae“@quivalent pais initial recipe of mode energies included in this vibration. The fifth and tenth ‘modes have nodes at the plucking point, and for a mathematically ideal pluck they would be entirely absent. Notice that high-numbered modes generally receive less energy than low ones, in contrast to Figure 94. cs 20 Reistve sre (68) 10) (a8 10 10 Whode \ ® Figure 99° Plucking mode energy recipes fortwo addtional examples fr een ith Bleore 9-8e, (a) String plucked at L/2 has all in even-numbered harmonics suppressed @) Sting pluck lacks evensunbered harmonics suppressed. (0) Sing plcked at 10 lacs ‘Mode energy (38) ‘Mode Figure 11-9 Relative amounts of energy in the natural modes of an ideal bowed string: compare with Figure 9-8 for a plucked string.Figure 4-6 Waves coming through a narrow opening spread out almost equally in all directions. If waves acted like bullets, we would expect them to reach only the narrow region between the two dashed lines, leaving a shadow zone on either side. But these waves do not leave such shadows. It is equally true that waves passing a narrow obstacle will very effectively fil in behind it, as long water waves do on encountering a piling. Figure 4-5 Even in the absence of reflections, the source of sound S can be heard around the corner of a building by the receiver R. The waves spread around the corner by the process of diffraction