The History of Acoustics

Acoustics, one of the oldest branches of physics, originated with Pythagoras's studies of
music over 2,500 years ago. Scientific milestones abound in this field:

 Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) discovered the general principles of sympathetic

vibrations, or resonance, and the correspondence between the frequency of
vibrations and the length of a pendulum.
 Leonhard Euler and Daniel Bernoulli's studies of vibrating cords in the 18th
century eventually led to the development of Fourier analysis, one of the most
important tools of mathematics and mathematical physics.

 Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz independently developed the
theory of calculus, which in turn allowed the derivation of the general wave
equation by the French mathematician and scientist Jean Le Rond d'Alembert in
the 1740s.

 Hermann von Helmholtz's On the Sensations of Tone As a Physiological Basis for

the Theory of Music (1863) made substantial contributions to understanding the
mechanisms of hearing and to the psychophysics of sound and music.

 John William Strutt's The Theory of Sound (1877/78), a monument of acoustical

literature, was the first treatise to examine questions of vibrations, the resonance
of elastic solids and gases, and acoustical propagation in material media.

 Jean Baptiste-Joseph Fourier, a 19th-century French mathematician, established

his theory about the analysis of a complex periodic wave into its spectral
components.

 German physicist Georg Simon Ohm hypothesized that the human ear is sensitive
to these spectral components. His Law of Hearing stated that the ear is sensitive to
the amplitudes, but not the phases, of the harmonics of a complex tone.

 20th-century American physicist Wallace Sabine initiated the science of modern

architectural acoustics by finding ways to correct the acoustics of noisy rooms.

 Hungarian-born American physicist Georg von Békésy validated Helmholtz's

theory of hearing with his Experiments in Hearing (1960), the classic of the
modern theory of the ear.

Current branches of acoustical study consider the auditory aspects of telephony, radio and
sound reproduction (communications acoustics); the behavior of sound waves in interior
environments (architectural acoustics) and exterior environments (environmental
acoustics); and the nature of speech and hearing (physiological acoustics).

Are acoustics and sound the same thing?

What physical phenomena are involved in acoustics?

Sounds are often considered to be those sensations which

the ear can detect, however, acoustics is concerned with
much more than just hearing. Before we explore the range
covered by acoustics it is useful to ensure we understand
how sound is produced.
Sound results from vibrations in the medium, whether it be a
gas, a liquid or a solid. Consider a tuning fork. When it is
'sounded', the prongs vibrate back and forth creating fluctuations
in the air pressure around the prongs. These fluctuations move
away from the fork prongs, creating a sound wave. The bow
causes a violin string to vibrate producing sound waves, while
the bang coming from an explosion is caused by rapid changes
occurring in the hot gas at the centre of the explosion. Speech is
produced by the relatively complicated interaction of the lungs,
vocal cords and passages in the throat, the resultant effect being
the generation of alternatively compressed and rarefied regions
of air immediately in front of the lips. Again, this region moves
away from the speaker as a sound wave.

The number of vibrations which occur in one second is called

the frequency of the sound and is given the name Hertz (or just
Hz.) after one of the early pioneers in acoustics. Normal speech
contains frequencies ranging from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz, which is
also the range of human hearing. Often this is called the audible
range. When the vibrations occur at frequencies less than 20 Hz
they cannot be heard and are called infrasonic while ones above
20,000 Hz, which are also inaudible, are referred to as
ultrasonic.

Acoustics includes the study of waves which range from

infrasonic right through to ultrasonic waves - in fact any form of
mechanical vibration in any media can be regarded as part of
acoustics. This very broad definition is why acoustics is
involved in practically all aspects of modern life.
The wavelength of sound is the distance travelled by the sound during the
time of one complete vibration. It is of importance because the effect which
an obstacle, such as a fence, has on the sound depends on its physical size
relative to the wavelength of the sound. Most noticeable effects occur when
the wavelength is smaller than the physical size.
There is an important relationship between the frequency, f, the
wavelength, X, and the speed of the sound c in the medium.
Mathematically, the relation can be expressed as:
 c=fxL
The speed of sound depends on the medium carrying the wave. As some
examples, the speed is 344 m/s in air, 5,200m/s in steel, between 1,000 and
5000 m/s in wood depending on type and direction relative to the grain, and
about 80 to 200 m/s in soils.
Note that every area of acoustics involves three aspects - the production of
the sound or vibration, transmission of the sound through some medium
and, thirdly, the reception or detection of the sound. While the production
and detection are important aspects, in many situations the most
complicated area is often the transmission of the sound from source to
receiver. This may involve reflection of the sound energy from a surface,
diffraction where sound is bent around corners, interference where part of
the sound wave interacts with other parts of the wave to cancel or enhance
the overall effect and absorption where sound energy is changed into heat
within the material. Often, many of these processes occur simultaneously.

What is the softest and the loudest sound?

What is meant by Sound Level?

Sound waves are small fluctuations in the air pressure which reaches the
ear. The size or amplitude of these fluctuations determines how loud the
sound seems to the listener. The range of sounds is very large: the noise of a
jet plane is around a million times greater than the buzz of a mosquito.
Because of this huge variation, it is common practice to use a logarithmic
scale to describe sounds. This scale uses a reference pressure (of P_0 =
0.00002 Pascal ) which corresponds to about the quietest sound a person
can hear and then any other sound with a pressure P is compared to the
reference sound by using the formula:
dB = 20 log_10(P / PO)
The result is known as the sound level in decibel or just dB.
Because the ear has a different sensitivity to different
frequencies, it is common practice to use an A-weighting
system to adjust for this effect. Some typical A-weighted
levels for common community situations are as follows:

Day-time level Night-time Level

A quiet country field,
45-50dB(A)
sound of distant tractor
Suburban street, distant
50-55dB(A) 39-43dB(A)
traffic noise.
Beside a busy roadway
70-85dB(A) 60-70dB(A)
carrying cars and trucks.
Near busy runway with 110-130dB(A)
 large jet plane taking off

Notice that often the levels are different during day-time compared to
night-time.

What are some of the developing areas of acoustics?

What is the future of Acoustics?

Here are some areas of acoustics which are expanding and offer a bright
prospect for future development.
Communications

With the rapid development of computers it is already possible to

communicate directly with them by voice control and to make them reply
using sounds. Devices which routinely recognise and simulate speech will
become increasingly common in the next few decades. Voice transmission
over long distances by cable or microwave links are other areas where
current technology is making rapid progress.

Underwater Acoustics

Detecting a submarine underwater, tracking schools of fish, determining the

average temperature of large tracts of ocean to check on global warming are
but a few applications of this expanding field.

Ultrasonics

Detecting flaws in aircraft structures or in the welds of a huge oil rig are just
two applications of ultrasonics. In medicine, similar principles apply to the
detection of tumours in the body or of imaging an unborn baby. Ultrasonic
baths are commonly used to clean contamination from sensitive surfaces,
while ultrasound can also be used to cut holes in extremely hard materials
where an ordinary drill would not penetrate.

Architecture

New and improved sound insulating materials are continually being included
in modern architectural structures to produce quieter living environments and
more pleasing concert halls and other entertainment venues.

Life Studies

Biological ears which can allow some deaf people to regain their hearing are
already being utilised, but there is much more progress yet to be made in this
field. How do birds or dolphins communicate using sound, what effects does
changing the nature of a forest have on the ability of birds to communicate
are areas under current study.

Acoustics is already playing a significant role in modern communities and

there is tremendous scope for enthusiastic people to play an important role
in continuing these developments by mastering and applying the principles
of acoustics.

What is the scope of Acoustics?

Why should you consider a career in Acoustics?

These are meaningful questions providing you understand what is meant by

acoustics. Many people have a vague feeling that acoustics is something to
do with noise - perhaps in association with road traffic or the properties of
their favourite concert hall. In fact, acoustics is a wide ranging subject
which has applications in health and medicine, in the arts, in engineering
and many aspects of the sciences.
A career in acoustics can involve working in music, speech, medicine,
physiology, mechanics, architecture or oceanography, to name but a few
areas. Acoustic specialists could well be involved with the design of a
concert hall or shielding communities from traffic noise, but other areas
might involve developing improved hearing aids for the deaf or speech aids
for the dumb, creating new acoustic materials or studying the physics of
sound propagation in the earths atmosphere. Acoustics plays a role in
detecting underwater submarines or atomic explosions, it is involved with
making computers talk to you or helping them understand spoken
commands. Detecting the presence of an unborn child or improving the
quality of a musical instrument are further problems involving acoustics.
Often acoustic specialists are called in as part of a team effort. Some
examples include joining with architects and engineers in the planning and
construction of a new sporting complex or a super highway. Others may
have a role in the design and testing associated with a very fast train project
while some may consider the implications of shipping propeller noise as
part of a study on the marine life around Australia's coastline. It may well
be an advantage to future workers in acoustics if they have training in some
other discipline, which is then enhanced by additional studies in acoustics.
A wide background is invaluable in many job situations and none more so
than in acoustics.
Today, people working in acoustics can be found in Government
laboratories, in hospitals, in the armed forces, in industry and educational
institutions. You can do fundamental research, applied problem solving,
consulting, teaching or some combination of these areas. The scope is wide
and a future in acoustics is limited only by your personal drive and
ambitions. So take up the challenge consider a career in acoustics.

Where do people work in acoustics?

What types of jobs are involved?

Industry

Many of the larger industrial organisations employ people to work on

specific acoustic problems. They may be concerned with locating and
reducing noise created by industrial plant, with hearing conservation or the
design and construction of absorbing materials for use in offices or
auditoriums. Other companies may be seeking defects in metal tanks using
ultrasonics or improving speech over the telephone network. In the car
industry, measurement of sound levels within the cabin of a vehicle and
vibrations caused by the engine and wheels are two areas involving
acoustics. Relatively few companies within Australia employ people to do
basic research into aspects of acoustics; usually they prefer to incorporate
such knowledge once it has been developed elsewhere.
Often companies will employ specialist acoustic consultants to solve their
particular problems. This may be to assist in the design of industrial plant
layout in order to minimise noise radiating out into the community or the
construction of appropriate sound proof rooms for music lessons in a
school. All the major cities of Australia have a number of acoustic
consultant firms employing specialists capable of solving a wide range of
problems.

Education

Universities and colleges of advanced education provide courses in

acoustics and also undertake basic and applied research in many varied
areas of the subject. Depending on the emphasis involved, the work may
occur in Departments such as Physics, Electrical and Mechanical
Engineering, Architecture, Music, Speech, Psychology and Medicine.
Often educational institutions include some acoustics within the subjects
required for a Degree or Diploma, while many places offer post-graduate
courses which will permit candidates to undertake research in aspects of
acoustics. Such fundamental research may be funded by the Institution,
through industrial sponsorship or from Commonwealth Grants.

Government

There are a number of government and semi-government laboratories

undertaking research into acoustics. The major one in Australia is the
National Acoustics Laboratories at Chatswood in NSW. The site was
chosen because of the low background noise in the area as it is remote from
major roads and aircraft flight paths. This facility was opened in 1988 and
contains four anechoic rooms, two adjacent reverberation rooms, a large
quiet room for subjective listening tests, and high intensity noise rooms
with a wide variety of excellent measurement systems. As well as
conducting their own program of research into aspects of acoustics, the
Laboratories can be hired by other organisations to run specific tests.
The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation,
CSIRO, is also involved in many research projects into aspects of acoustics.
At Highett, Victoria, noise associated with buildings is being investigated in
the Division of Building, Construction and Engineering while noise from
textile machines was studied at the Geelong branch; to mention but a few.
The Department of Defence, in their Aeronautical and Maritime Research
Laboratory near Melbourne is using underwater acoustics to detect
submarines as well as seeking new acoustic materials to reduce reflections
from submarines. Noise and vibrations in aircraft are also investigated.
Another branch, in South Australia, has been using the combination of
acoustics and light -optoacoustics - to detect ways of detecting missiles.

How do you prepare for a career in acoustics?

What subjects should I study?

There are few courses devoted entirely to acoustics, rather it complements a

wide range of subjects. So the question really should be: What do I study
for a career in Engineering or in Science or perhaps in Architecture or
Medicine.
A driving curiosity to discover how nature works and how best to utilise
these ideas for the betterment of society is a strong foundation for a
prospective acoustician.
Because acoustics interacts with so many other areas, it is well to have a
broad range of background subjects at secondary school - an interest in
music and the arts is no less important than a study of physics and biology.
However, a knowledge of basic mathematics and some skills in computing
are essential these days. Computers are used in all aspects of the design,
measurement, and data analysis in acoustics.
The ability to understand abstract ideas is part of the training of most
students - and is needed to follow the mathematical and physical ideas
involved in solving the problem of how nature works. It is an important
task of the acoustical scientist to translate such abstract ideas into the
practical solutions needed by the community. As the acoustician will often
be working with people in industrial or government positions who have
little scientific training, or with musicians, builders, private citizens and
sometimes lawyers who have limited acoustical knowledge, an ability to
 communicate ideas simply and clearly is invaluable. In brief, a person
interested in acoustics should have a well rounded background in the
scientific aspects of the subject as well as being literate and interested in the
arts.
While not all people working in acoustics have extensive formal
qualifications, some basic training is necessary. As society becomes more
and more conscious of the need for well educated citizens, there will be an
increasing demand for people with formal qualifications in the acoustics
work force, rather than the "self-trained" ( although often very dedicated )
workers who have only done a few short courses during their career. So the
advice to people considering entering the area in future is to obtain as much
training as you can while you are young, as it gets harder the older you get.
As a starting point, a broad background is preferable to a course which
concentrates on solving a narrow range of specialised acoustic problems.
Your course work should place an emphasis on basic physics and
mathematics and include an understanding of wave-motion, basic
computing and some electronics and instrumentation. Courses which
include a study of optics and electromagnetic theory are useful, as many of
the basic ideas and laws developed in these areas are directly transferable to
acoustics.
Such subjects often occur within the framework of an engineering degree.
Individuals may wish to complement the above studies with areas such as
architecture, the life sciences including biology or psychology and/or an
arts subject like music. Such choices will build the bridges necessary to
lead the budding acoustician into the many and varied areas of acoustics.
Keen candidates may wish to extend their studies after obtaining a basic
degree and undertake additional work towards a Masters or even a Doctoral
degree in acoustics. A number of Universities include acoustics among the
areas offered for such training. The following list indicates some types of
Faculties and the kind of research topics which may be undertaken.
However, the list is by no means comprehensive.
Mechanical Engineering:

Research into the effects of vibration in various structures, production of

turbulent sound from flowing fluids, active noise control.

Physics:

Interaction of sound with materials, basic properties of acoustic materials,

behaviour of musical instruments.

Biology:

Communication between living organisms by means of sound, effects of

noise on the behaviour of marine and land-based animals - including man.
 Psychology:

Problems of speech and hearing and the intelligibility of communication.

What is the Australian Acoustical Society?

Who can join the Society?

The Australian Acoustical Society is the professional body for people

working in acoustics. Towards the end of 1964, the concept of the society
started to develop and it has grown from an original 18 interested people to
its present membership of around 400. There are active Divisions in New
South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria (including Tasmania),
and Western Australia.
The Australian Acoustical Society has as its aim the promotion and
advancement of the science and practice of acoustics in all its branches and
the exchange of ideas between its members.
While the principle activity of the Divisions are a series of technical and
social meetings of their members, each year one division hosts a major
conference where members can present papers on the varied aspects of
acoustic work being undertaken throughout Australia. These conferences
usually last for two days and are often attended by international visitors.
The Society has also been involved with the staging of a number of major
international conferences. In addition, the Society publishes a thrice yearly
journal called Acoustics Australia.
Being a professional body, the Society requires applicants to have reached
an adequate standard of study in acoustics and/or have had a number of
years experience working in the area, before they will be admitted as
Members or Associates. A special Student Membership is available for
interested people who are continuing their studies. Many business
organisations have joined as Sustaining Members while members who
have made an exceptional contribution to acoustics may be elected to
Fellow of the Society.
The Society also runs a number of annual awards: such as the Excellence in
Acoustics prize originally started by the New South Wales Division but
which has recently become a national event, and the H.Vivian Taylor
award available to students undertaking studies in acoustics in Victoria.

ACOUSTICS FOR MUSIC

Most of our music making is carried out indoors. In such a situation, the
listener's experience is formed almost as much by the room itself as by
the instruments. For a successful performance (or recording), the
concert space (or studio, or living room with recorded sounds) must
fulfill the following:
 The audience must clearly hear all of the music with the proper balance between
instruments, and the proper tonal balance for each instrument.
 The performer must clearly hear himself and the other performers.
 Reverberation should be appropriate to the style of the music.
 Extraneous sounds must be inaudible in the concert space.
 The sound of the concert should be inaudible outside of the concert space.

These goals are more or less in order of importance. The last

requirement will not affect the concert itself, but may affect the
possibility of holding future concerts. With these criteria in mind, we
will examine the important structural factors of the the room which
control them.

SOUND IN A ROOM

Fig.1 Direct sound and early reflections

Figure 1 shows the paths taken by the sound as it travels from the
performer to the listener. (The wavefronts of the sound are not shown,
they would be perpendicular to the lines drawn.) The heavy line,
number 1, shows the shortest path, the direct one. The other paths all
involve one reflection, so must be longer than the direct path, although
their relative lengths will change as the performer and listener move
about the room. Since sound travels at a steady 1 foot per millisecond,
the sound of a single event is going to arrive at the listener's ears
several times as determined by the different path lengths. We can
chart the arrival times on a graph:

Fig. 2 Arrival times of a single sound

The amplitude of a particular reflection is determined by the path
length and the efficiency of the wall in reflecting sound. That efficiency
is described as the coefficient of absorption (any sound not
reflected is absorbed). The coefficient of absorption is a number
between 0 and 1, with 1 representing total absorption (an open
window) and 0 representing total reflection.
We are very used to hearing sounds indoors, so we have learned not to
be confused by the multiplicity of sounds arriving from various
directions. We almost always realize the sound comes from the
direction of the first arrival. (The whole issue of localization is too
involved to get into here. It depends a lot on the number and shape of
our ears.) Any reflections that arrive within 20 milliseconds of the first
add to the impression of loudness of the sound. Any reflections that
arrive more than 40 milliseconds after the first may be heard as a
distinct echo, but are usually accepted as reverberation. Reflections
that arrive between 20 and 40 milliseconds after the direct sound can
be confusing and interfere with understanding if the sounds are
speech.

Reverberation
Sound does not stop at the listener's ears of course, it continues and is
reflected again by the other walls of the room. If the coefficient of
absorption is low, a sound may bounce several dozen times before it
fades away.

Fig. 3 More reflection paths

This drawing would be solid black if all of the possible reflections were
shown. The arrival time graph is more informative:

Fig. 4 Time and amplitude of sounds at listener's ear

This shows the complete picture of what is heard if a single, short
sound is produced in a room. Most of the sound energy that is reflected
twice or more is heard as reverberation, a sort of stretching of the
sound event. The actual amplitude of reverberation is not very
important (unless it is strong enough to obscure following sounds) but
the time that it persists is. Short reverb times (a half to a full second)
are comfortable for speech, whereas moderate times (1 to 3 seconds)
work well with various kinds of music. Some music was written for very
reverberant environments such as large stone churches, and should be
heard that way.

Coloration
Reverberation time is the most often quoted description of a
performing space, but it is not really the most important. The
frequency response of the reverb should be reasonably flat, or slightly
low pass, which is sometimes described as "warm reverb". That means
that low partials of sounds will persist a little longer that high
components, matching the decay characteristics of most instruments.
The opposite effect, where high pitched sounds linger, can be very
annoying. This is the situation in many indoor swimming pools.
The envelope of the reverberation should match that in figure 4, a
fairly even decay, with no "lumps" of sound. A rectangular room with
flat walls will not provide such an envelope; the reverberation will
occur in bursts, often with distinct echos ("slap-back). To provide even
reverberation, the shape of the walls should be complex, but not very
regular. A regular structure, such as a staircase, will often produce a
series of echoes called flutter echo.

Isolation
Control of reflections and reverberation can satisfy the first three goals
on our list. Isolation is a matter of the materials and techniques used to
build the room. The walls must be heavy and solid, and for really
excellent isolation, all walls, doors, floor and ceiling must be doubled;
literally one room within another. Attention must be paid to such
details as air ducts and holes for electrical cables, for sound can leak
through any opening. Once an adequately isolated structure is finished,
noise generating devices must be kept out. Light fixtures, (especially
fluorescent), heaters, and backstage equipment can all create noise
and must be chosen for quiet operation.
Adequate isolation is almost impossible to achieve after construction if
it was not built in in the first place, but since it is an issue that is very
important to low budget recording and electronic music, here are a few
things that can be tried.
  First, find the leaks that sound follows between the studio and the outside world.
Edges of doors, vent ducts, electrical outlets are all suspect. They can be treated
with the materials sold for heat insulation, if the heavy, expensive versions are
used.
 Direct attachment of sound sources to walls, floors or ceiling should be avoided.
Swing speakers from ropes or mount them on stands. Put three layers of carpet on
the floor, or set things on the canvas part of camp stools.
 Hang absorptive materials. Heavy curtains or rugs from floor to ceiling work well,
as does four inch thick fiberglas insulation. (Thinner fiberglas has poor frequency
response) There are plastic foams designed for this purpose, but they are
expensive and a fire hazard. Egg carton material has a nice shape for diffusion,
but is not particularly absorptive. If the above procedure makes the room too
dead, hang some light hard panels in front of but not touching the absorption

Building for good acoustics

A small concert hall was given acoustical treatments in a recent
renovation. Here are the visible features that were added:

Fig. 5 Some structures to control reflections and reverberation

The diffusers smooth out the reverberation and make the sound
reasonably uniform at different seats. The absorptive curtains allow the
reverberation time of the room to be adjusted to control the loudness
of ensembles of various sizes. Movable panels behind the performers
serve to group the early reflections into the "sooner than 20ms" range
and also (probably more important in this small hall) help the
performers hear each other.
The issue of architectural acoustics is very complex, and often not
handled well. It seems that most concert halls are constantly being
tinkered with and occasionally rebuilt at fantastic costs; perhaps our
expectations are unrealistic now that we are used to hearing every
note and nuance in our living room.