Introduction to Sound: Acoustics for the Hearing and Speech Sciences, Third Edition

Introduction to Sound: Acoustics for the Hearing and Speech Sciences, Third Edition continues with the same fundamental aim as the previous two editions to not only present, but to teach the fundamental concepts of acoustics to students in the speech-language hearing sciences, in preparation for more advanced study of both normal and disordered communication.

This book was written to teach the fundamental concepts of acoustics, particularly to those who are interested in the discipline of the speech-language-hearing sciences. Readers who are thoroughly grounded in mathematics and physics should be able to move through the various topics quickly. Those who are less comfortable with basic concepts of physics, or with mathematics beyond elementary algebra, will require more careful study of some of the concepts, but ultimately the concepts should be understood. Students of the speech-language-hearing sciences must have a thorough understanding of the elements of acoustics before they can successfully embark on more advanced study of both normal and disordered human communication.

There are many aspects of sound that might interest readers other than students in the speech-language-hearing sciences. Why is a "sonic boom" created when an airplane exceeds the speed of sound? Why is a foghorn designed to emit a low-pitched sound instead of a high-pitched whistle? If you are hunting in the woods, why is your distant prey more likely to hear you if it is downwind from you? How do "whispering galleries" work? In what ways do echoes off a canyon wall behave like billiard balls bouncing off rails of the billiard table? When you contemplate purchasing a stereo system, what does the salesperson mean by terms such as frequency response, noise floor, dynamic range, signal-to-noise ratio, decibels, percentage harmonic distortion, and so on? The answers to these and other questions are sprinkled throughout the text.