Putting noise in its place

AUG 01, 2020

Julian Ting

In his article on the evolution and history of noise (Physics Today, February 2020, page 42 ), Roland Wittje mentions in passing physicists, including Nobel laureates, involved in acoustics during World War I. What he did not mention was the essential work of James Lighthill (1924–98) during the 1950s. After Lord Rayleigh’s monumental contributions in his two-volume work The Theory of Sound, Lighthill’s development of aeroacoustics ¹ is considered some of the most important work in the field; he defined the source of sound and especially illuminated the issue of noise reduction. (See Lighthill’s obituary in Physics Today, March 1999, page 104 .)

References

1. M. J. Lighthill, Proc. R. Soc. London A 211, 564 (1952); https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.1952.0060
M. J. Lighthill, Proc. R. Soc. London A 222, 1 (1954). https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.1954.0049

More about the Authors

Julian Ting. (juhilian@gmail.com) De-Font Research Institute, Taichung, Taiwan.