Everest Frederick Alton - Master handbook of acoustics

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Dedicated to the memory of F. Alton Everest

F. Alton Everest (deceased) was a leading expert and authority in the field of acoustics. He was an emeritus member of the Acoustical Society of America, a life member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and life fellow of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. He was cofounder and director of the Science Film Production division of the Moody Institute of Science, and was also section chief of the Subsea Sound Research section of the University of California.

Ken C. Pohlmann is well known as an audio educator, consultant, and author. He was director of the Music Engineering Technology program, founder of its Master of Science degree program, and is professor emeritus, at the University of Miami in Coral Gables. He is a fellow of the Audio Engineering Society, a consultant for numerous audio companies and car manufacturers, and an expert in patent-infringement litigation. He is author of numerous articles and books including Principles of Digital Audio (McGraw-Hill), and coauthor of Sound Studio Construction(McGraw-Hill).

Contributions are included from Peter DAntonio, Geoff Goacher, and Doug Plum.

I have traveled the world, poking my head into research laboratories, anechoic chambers, engineering cubicles, recording studios, home theaters, and countless classrooms. Often tucked away with other books is a copy of the Master Handbook of Acoustics. Ive seen old editions, new editions, and everything in between. I am especially happy to see the well-used print copies with dog-eared covers and underlined passages. All of this is testament to Mr. F. Alton Everest, the original author of the book. He created a valuable tool that we know and trust, a book that has become a classic. The acoustical engineering community grieved when Mr. Everest passed away in 2005 at the age of 95. He was a giant in the field of acoustics, and a great example of the high caliber of the engineers of his generation. He will be missed.

I was honored when McGraw-Hill asked me to prepare a fifth, and now this sixth edition of the Master Handbook of Acoustics. I had used the handbook since it was first published in 1981, and was well familiar with its value as a teaching text and reference book. Readers who are familiar with another of my books, Principles of Digital Audio, may be surprised to learn that my passion for digital technology is equaled by my enthusiasm for acoustics. I taught courses in architectural acoustics (in addition to classes in digital audio) for 30 years at the University of Miami, where I directed the Music Engineering Technology program. Throughout that time, I also consulted on many acoustics projects, ranging from recording studio to listening room design, from church acoustics to community noise intrusion. As with many practitioners in the field, it was important for me to understand the fundamentals of acoustical properties, and also to stay current with the practical applications and solutions to todays acoustical problems. This essential equilibrium was the guiding principle of Mr. Everests previous editions of this book, and I have continued to seek that same balance.

Occasionally, and particularly among newbies to the field of acoustics, the question arises, Why is it important to study acoustics? One reason, among many, is that you will be joining in, and hopefully contributing to, a noble scientific undertaking. Since antiquity, some of the worlds greatest scientists and engineers have studied acoustics and its elegant complexities. Greek philosophers including Pythagoras, Aristotle, and Euclid began the exploration of the nature of musical harmonics and how we hear sound. The great Roman engineer and architect Vitruvius carefully analyzed echo and reverberation in his building projects. Over the years, heavyweights such as Ptolemy, Galileo, Mersenne, Kircher, Hooke, Newton, Laplace, Euler, DAlembert, Bernoulli, Lagrange, Poisson, Faraday, Helmholtz, Ohm, Doppler, and Sabine all made contributions. In all, countless men and women have worked to evolve the science of acoustics to a high degree of sophistication. But, pressing the question, in todays binary world, is acoustics still important? Consider this: We rely on our eyes and ears. Our eyes close when we sleep; we cannot see in the dark; someone can sneak up on us unseen from behind. But from birth to death, awake or asleep, in light and in dark, our ears are always sensitive to our world all around us. Whether we are hearing sounds that give us pleasure, or sounds that alert us to danger, whether they are sounds of nature, or sounds of technology, the properties of acoustics and the way that architectural spaces affect those sounds is woven into every moment of our lives. Is acoustics important? You bet it is.