Fundamentals of Acoustics [Hardcover]

Lawrence E. Kinsler (Author), Austin R. Frey (Author), Alan B. Coppens (Author), James V. Sanders (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471847895 | ISBN-13: 978-0471847892 | Publication Date: December 30, 1999 | Edition: 4

The classic acoustics reference! This widely-used book offers a clear treatment of the fundamental principles underlying the generation, transmission, and reception of acoustic waves and their application to numerous fields. The authors analyze the various types of vibration of solid bodies and the propagation of sound waves through fluid media.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 560 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 4 edition (December 30, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471847895
• ISBN-13: 978-0471847892
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 0.9 x 10 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #86,891 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #36 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Physics > Acoustics & Sound

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars OK, but better texts available, April 29, 2003

By 

"theophilus28" (Cambridge, Mass.

Cambridge, Mass. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fundamentals of Acoustics (Hardcover)

Personally, I was disappointed by the fourth edition of this venerable text, for it has become increasingly mathematical and problem oriented. If you like sitting down and whiling away your afternoon with a problem set -- this is the text for you. But if instead you wish to study acoustics through a pedagogical method that is more verbal and graphical in nature -- better texts are available.

Indeed, in my opinion, prior editions (1950, 1962, 1981) of this same text are superior, particularly the second edition. Although these too have their share of integral calculus and complex algebra, the quantity is more appropriate for a discipline that is mostly science and engineering but with aspects of art to it as well.

Bear in mind that aside from a few specialized areas -- like ultrasonics and its use in non-destructive testing, or the use of digital processing in sound generation and analysis -- little new has come about in the field of acoustics since World War II. Thus unlike with most fields of science, there is no necessity to have the most modern texts to gather a wholly modern understanding of the field.

Indeed, I recently examined almost every text relating to acoustics contained in the circumferential stacks of the Barker Engineering Library under the Great Dome of M.I.T. (and sadly, there aren't as many texts as one might hope). I was surprised both at the age of most volumes in the collection -- and the fact that most had not been checked out of the library in years.

Indeed, from the "Date Due" slips in the back, you could see the field was very popular in the 1960's and 1970's, but popularity seemed to wain in the early 1980's -- approximately contemporaneously, curiously, with the introduction of the digital CD format of audio recording.

By the mid-1990's, at M.I.T., at least, interest in acoustics among faculty and students seem to have declined precipitiously, if the popularity of library texts and the quantity of student theses published in the field is any indication.

Of all the general texts on acoustics that I examined -- to me, one clearly stood out above the others. It was published in 1957 by the lead acoustical scientist at the RCA Research Laboratories in Princeton, New Jersey, Harry F. Olsen, Ph.D. It is entitled, "Acoustical Engineering", although it contains all the fundamental science as well. This text was reprinted in 1991 and is currently available.

Olsen's work is surely a magnum opus, comprising 736 pages and 567 illustrations. It has its fair share of math, but the concepts are often additionally explained through well-crafted line drawings, showing, for example, wave forms drawn in progressive fashion in serial graphs, some of which are designed so that one can even mentally rotate the graphics to gather a three-dimensional perspective. Furthermore, the graphs are often supplemented by equivalent mechanical and electrical analogs, to further assist in understanding.

Best of all, Olsen explains virtually everything acoustical you would ever want to know, from theories of acoustical wave propagation, to an enormous variety of loudspeaker designs, to the mathematical reasoning behind Johann Sebastian Bach's tempered tuning of musical instruments, an artistic practice that is almost universal today.

Thus if it is a text for a problem-oriented course in acoustics that one seeks -- the fourth edition of the "Fundamentals of Acoustics" is a fine text. However, if one wishes to have a ready reference that is extraordinarily comprehensive, or a pedagogical work that doesn't focus on mathematical derivations, better choices can surely be made.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars OK, but better texts available, April 29, 2003

By 

"theophilus28" (Cambridge, Mass.

Cambridge, Mass. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fundamentals of Acoustics (Hardcover)

Personally, I was disappointed by the fourth edition of this venerable text, for it has become increasingly mathematical and problem oriented. If you like sitting down and whiling away your afternoon with a problem set -- this is the text for you. But if instead you wish to study acoustics through a pedagogical method that is more verbal and graphical in nature -- better texts are available.

Indeed, in my opinion, prior editions (1950, 1962, 1981) of this same text are superior, particularly the second edition. Although these too have their share of integral calculus and complex algebra, the quantity is more appropriate for a discipline that is mostly science and engineering but with aspects of art to it as well.

Bear in mind that aside from a few specialized areas -- like ultrasonics and its use in medical imaging and non-destructive testing, or the use of digital processing in sound generation and vibration analysis -- little new has come about in the field of acoustics since World War II. Thus unlike with most fields of science, there is no necessity to have the most modern texts to gather a wholly modern understanding of the field (with a few minor exceptions).

Indeed, I recently examined almost every text relating to acoustics contained in the circumferential stacks of the Barker Engineering Library under the Great Dome of M.I.T. (and sadly, there aren't as many texts as one might hope). I was surprised both at the age of most volumes in the collection -- and the fact that most had not been checked out of the library in years.

Indeed, from the "Date Due" slips in the back, you could see the field was very popular in the 1960's and 1970's, but popularity seemed to wane in the early 1980's -- approximately contemporaneously, curiously, with the introduction of the digital CD format of audio recording.

By the mid-1990's, at M.I.T., at least, interest in acoustics among faculty and students seem to have declined precipitiously, if the popularity of library texts and the quantity of student theses published in the field is any indication.

Of all the general texts on acoustics that I examined -- to me, one clearly stood out above the others. It was published in 1957 by Harry F. Olsen, Ph.D., the lead acoustical scientist at the RCA Research Laboratories in Princeton, New Jersey. It is entitled, "Acoustical Engineering", although the text contains all the fundamental science as well. This volume was reprinted in 1991 and is currently available.

Olsen's work is surely a magnum opus, comprising 736 pages and 567 illustrations. It has its fair share of math, but the concepts are often additionally explained through well-crafted line drawings, showing, for example, wave forms drawn in progressive fashion in serial graphs, some of which are designed so that one can even mentally rotate the graphics to gather a three-dimensional perspective. Furthermore, the graphs are often supplemented by art showing equivalent mechanical and electrical analogs, to further assist in understanding.

Best of all, Olsen explains virtually everything acoustical you would ever want to know, from theories of acoustical wave propagation, to an enormous variety of loudspeaker designs, to the mathematical reasoning behind Johann Sebastian Bach's tempered tuning of musical instruments, an artistic practice that is almost universal today.

Thus if it is a text for a problem-oriented course in acoustics that one seeks -- the fourth edition of the "Fundamentals of Acoustics" is a fine text. However, if one wishes to have a ready reference that is extraordinarily comprehensive, or a pedagogical work that doesn't focus on mathematical derivations, better choices can surely be made.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book on the mathematics of acoustics for engineers, April 28, 2007

By 

calvinnme - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Fundamentals of Acoustics (Hardcover)

This book is aimed squarely at engineering students who want to learn the mathematics of acoustics. There is very little in the realm of standing back and asking "So what does this all mean?". From the very first chapter the author dives into deriving equations that use calculus, Laplace transforms, the Fourier series and transform, circuit analysis, digital filters, and the Z- transform as well as some differential equations. There are few examples in the book, but there are problem sets that expect you to understand the theory and math well enough to apply it numerically with more intuitive knowledge than is presented. It can be done, but you'll have to read carefully when doing the exercises to figure out how to get from A to B. If you are interested in acoustics this is probably an essential reference pertaining to the mathematical aspects of the science, but you'll need other books to get the big picture. I'd recommend the old Schaum's Outline of Acoustics by Seto as a companion to this book since it has lots of examples. Unfortunately, it is out of print and you'll probably have to hunt for it.