Article
Article
Acoustics
Article By:
Lindsay, R. Bruce Formerly, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island.
Last reviewed:August 2019
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.007000
The science of sound, which in its most general form endeavors to describe and interpret the phenomena associated with motional disturbances from equilibrium of elastic media. An elastic medium is one such that if any part of it is displaced from its original position with respect to the rest, as for example by an impact, it will return to its original state when the disturbing influence is removed. Acoustics was originally limited to the human experience produced by the stimulation of the human ear by sound incident from the surrounding air. Modern acoustics, however, deals with all sorts of sounds which have no relation to the human ear, for example, seismological disturbances and ultrasonics.
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