A new wave of acoustics

NOV 01, 1981

Surveys a half century of acoustical studies, from the nonlinear behavior of the ear to the sounds of superfluidity

Robert Beyer

In 1946, Richard Feynman, giving a contributed paper at a meeting of the American Physical Society, remarked that the allotted time was not long enough for him to read his abstract (it was a peculiarly long one), but only enough for him to point out the errors in it. In a similar vein, modern acoustics is so broad that the space allowed here is scarcely enough to reprint the PACS classification of the subject, let alone to instruct or entertain. Acoustics today is a festival of the applications of physics, both theoretical and experimental. We must therefore restrict ourselves to a sampling of topics, ranging from acoustical devices as ancient as the guinea pig’s ear (figure 1) to others as modern as the electron‐acoustic microscopic (figure 2).

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References

1. J. Tonndorf, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 47, 579 (1970).https://doi.org/JASMAN
2. A more detailed discussion of this and other nonlinear problems may be found in R. T. Beyer, Nonlinear Acoustics, Navy Sea Systems Command (1974).
3. J. S. Mendousse, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 25, 51 (1953).https://doi.org/JASMAN
4. F. Dyson, W. Munk and B. Zeitler, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 59, 1121 (1976).https://doi.org/JASMAN
5. A recent article with a good reference list is L. Flax and H. Uberall, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 67, 1432 (1980). https://doi.org/JASMAN
See also W. G. Neubauer, R. H. Vogt, L. R. Dragonette, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 55, 1123, 1130 (1974).
6. An excellent coverage of ultrasound in medicine can be found in P. N. T. Wells, Biomedical Ultrasonics, Academic Press, N.Y. (1977).
7. G. S. Cargill III, PHYSICS TODAY, October 1981, page 27.
8. A general discussion of relaxation phenomena in acoustics is given by M. Greenspan, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 68, 29 (1980).https://doi.org/JASMAN
9. Any of the volumes of Physical Acoustics, (W. P. Mason and R. Thurston, eds) Academic Press, N.Y., will provide additional information here.
10. H. J. Maris, J. S. Blinick, Phys. Rev. A 2, 2139 (1970).https://doi.org/PLRAAN

More about the authors

Robert Beyer, Brown University.