Fundamentals of Acoustics by Lawrence E. Kinsler, Austin R. Frey, Alan B.

Coppens,
and James V. Sanders
F. E. White

Citation: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 72, 1090 (1982); doi: 10.1121/1.388211
View online: https://doi.org/10.1121/1.388211
View Table of Contents: https://asa.scitation.org/toc/jas/72/3
Published by the Acoustical Society of America

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Fundamentals of Acoustics this in the index is "cavitation." On the other hand, the book seemsremar-
kablyfreefromtypographicalerrors.The onlyoneI noticedwastheuseon
p. 232 of R•, in placeof Rr.
Lawrence E. Kinsler, Austin R. Frey, Alan B. This improvedand updatededitionof a standardtext in acousticsis
Coppens, and James V. Sanders highly recommended.
John Wileyand Sons, New York, 1982. 3rd Ed/?ion.
F. E. WHITE
xvi-F 480 pp. Price $29.95. BostonCollege
Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts02167
This book,intendedprimarily for either advancedundergraduates or
graduatestudentsin scienceand engineering,is a revisionof a well-known
text by the first two authorslisted above,the secondedition of which was
published20 yearsago. In lengthit is 44 pagesshorterthan the second
edition,but this is more than compensated for by a pagesizewhich allows
approximately10% more materialper page.In addition,thereare 37 sec- Proceedings: Noise and the environment
tions, most often near the end of a chapter,which are printed in much
smallertype.Thesehavematerialthe authorsfeel"...mayeitherbeomitted NationalBoardforScienceand Technology, She/bourneHouse,
without interruptingthe continuityof the presentation,or discussed later ShelbourneRoad, Dublin4, Ireland,May 1980.
when the student'scomprehension of acousticshas had time to mature." 202pp. Pdce œ4.00.
Includedare suchtopicsasThe ResonantBubble;The Voice;and Isospeed
Shallow-Water Channel.
This volumerepresentsthe proceedings of a seminarattendedby
about60 people,held in Clare, Ireland in May, 1980anddirectedtowards
The main changesfrom the secondedition are the eliminationof the
the noiseproblemsof concernto the majorityof participants,thosewho
chapteron ultrasonicand sonartransducers, the combinationof the chap-
workandlivein Ireland.WhiletheauthorsclaimIreland'snoiseproblems
ters on loudspeakersand microphonesinto a singlechapteron transduc-
are,in general,lessseverethanthosein theUnitedStatesandothermajor
tion, andtheadditionof a newchapteronenvironmentalacoustics, together
nations,I believethe problemsare sufficiently similarin bothdegreeand
with considerablenew material on suchtopicsas the ear and hearing,and
kind to makethisbookvery relevantto all readers.
soundpropagationin the ocean.The rewritinghasbeenextensive,andeven
The organizationof the proceedings followsthat of the symposium:
when major changeshavenot beenmade,many of the sentences havebeen
thereisa chapterdealingwith theopeningtalks,followedby foursections
rephrased.Also references to materialpublishedin the last20 yearshave
representingthe topicscoveredin the corresponding sessions.
The first
beenadded.Surprisingly,relativelyfew new figureshavehad to be made.
section,on sourcesof noise,containsthreepapers,oneof whichtreatsthe
For example,in Chap. 10,9 of 11figuresare takendirectlyfrom the second
issueof industrialnoise.The secondsectionpresents two papersdealing
editioneventhoughtheir order hasbeenchangedto accommodate the ex-
tensive revision of the material.
with the effectsof noiseon people,oneon communitynoise,the otheron
industrialnoise.The third sectionhastwopapersthatdiscuss community
For thosenot familiar with the secondedition,it mightbe well to give
noisecontrolmeasures: the fourth hasthreeconcerningmonitoringex-
the titles of the 15 chaptersso that one can get a better idea of just which
periences. The bookcloseswith a list of attendees anda summaryof the
partsof acousticsare included--andwhich are not. The titlesare Funda-
discussion followingeachsession.
mentalsof Vibration;TransverseMotion--the VibratingString;Vibrations
Proceedings: Noiseand theenvironmentis a veryreadableand refresh-
of Bars;The Two-DimensionalWave Equation;Vibrationsof Membranes
and Plates;The AcousticWave Equationand SimpleSolutions;Transmis- ingbook.The variousauthorsdo not, for example,suggest detailedsolu-
sion Phenomena;Absorptionand Attenuation of SoundWavesin Fluids; tionsthat workedin a specific instance
but ratherrecognizeandpayatten-
Radiation and Receptionof AcousticWaves;Pipes,Cavities,and Wave- tionto thepoliticaldifficulties
inherentin effecting
a goodcommunity noise
guides;Resonators,Ducts, and Filters; Noise, Signal Detection,Hearing controlprogram.The authorsadmitthatmostcommunitynoiseprograms
andSpeech;EnvironmentalAcoustics;ArchitecturalAcoustics;Transduc- will not work without reasonable enforcementand this deficiencyis the
tion; and Underwater Acoustics. causeof many failures.Furthermore,they recognizethat sophisticated
Both this edition and the second edition have about the same number of equipmentis beyondthe meansof most communitiesand codesbasedon
problems--justunder300. A randomcheckshowedonechapterwith only
thisequipment will probablynotbeadoptedor enforced.In Ireland,more
one problem which was not in the secondedition; a secondchapter for soperhapsthantheUnitedStates,theeconomyissuchthat onlyprograms
whichall but threewere"new" problems;a third for whicha majoritywere considered essentialarecarriedout.Theauthorsnotethatcommunitynoise
"old"; and a fourth for which a majoritywere"new." Answersare givenfor activitiesare amongthe firstto be cut whentryingto reducegovernment
expenditures.
the odd-numberedproblems.
While this book is not extremelytechnical,and the industrialnoise
In additionto a 5-pageglossaryof symbols,this book hasan 18-page
portionsdetractsomewhatfrom its theme,I highlyrecommendthisvol-
appendix--an increaseof 10pagesoverthat of the secondedition--includ- ume to those concerned with enforcement or measurement of environ-
ing usefulinformationon complexnumbers,Besselfunctions,impedance
mentnoise.Readingthebookwill providea sense
of community
with
functions,vectoroperators,conversion factors,and tablesof physicalpro-
.colleagues
in Irelandand,perhapsmoreimportantly,will givea strong
pertiesof matter.
insightinto the communitynoiseproblem.
Perhapsthe leastdistinguishedpart of this book is the index, which
might be best describedas inadequate.For example,in the preface,the
authorsmentionin a singlesentence:concerthall acoustics,detectionthe- RICHARD J. PEPPIN
ory, and normal modepropagationin the ocean.None of theseare listedin 5012 Macon Road
the index."Cavities"is a part of a chapterheading,but the nearestthingto Rockville,Maryland 20852

1090 J. Acoust.Soc. Am. 72(3), Sept. 1982; 0001-4966/82/091090-01500.80; ¸ 1982 Acoust.Soc. Am.; BookReviews 1090