Customer Reviews

The Theory of Sound, Volume One: Unabridged Second Revised Edition

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

These books, published first in 1877, contain the fundamental and basic theory for all those who work with vibrations and acoustics. The first book covers mechanical vibrations and the second book covers sound. Rayleigh's principle was published here.

This is one of the first (apart from the Helmholtz's 'sensations of tone' and Tyndall's 'sound') books published in the field of acoustics. Many of the topics in this book are the research results of Lord Rayleigh himself. The book is written in a very logical manner. Any acoustician who wants to understand physical principles should start with Rayleighs work. Although some of the results from this book are well established and used by some of the advanced prediction computer codes (Rayliegh's quotient e.t.c) today, the devolopment of the theory fascinates us to understand and use the codes well.

This is not a book for someone needing to learn to understand the dynamics behind vibrations and sound. It does a poor job of explaining the fundamentals and steps involved in derivations. Definitely for the advanced reader.

Vibrating plates, rods, membranes , their equations and the solutions are here in these books.
About the only real place that I've ever found anything on Chladni standing waves.
Since much of this work isn't his originally, presenting it in a way that even a beginner can follow is very much one of the master works of classic physics.
That the book could be more readable is my only complaint.