PHYS 103 Physics of Musical Sound

Instructor: Dr. Andy Piacsek

PHYS103 will be offered as DHC161 in Winter 2011 and 2012.

Course Information

PHYS 103 covers the basic principles of sound and vibration with the goal of understanding how and why musical instruments produce their sounds. Topics include sound analysis techniques, standing waves and overtones, room acoustics, musical scales, and the perception of sound. This course satisfies the breadth requirement of the General Education program (Applications of Natural Science), as well as being a writing-intensive "W" course.

Textbook:

There is no required text to purchase for this course. Instead, students will make use of extensive resources available online, in addition to handouts, worksheets, and copies of lectures that I provide.

The following textbooks are on reserve at the library for this course. Some reading assignments will be taken from these texts.

Cover	Information
	Physics and the Sound of Music, Second Edition. John Rigden Wiley, 1985 ISBN: 0-471-87412-4
	The Science of Sound, Third Edition. Rossing, Moore, and Wheeler Addison Wesley, 2002 ISBN: 0-8053-8565-7
	Musical Acoustics, Third Edition. Donald Hall Brooks/Cole, 2002 ISBN: 0-534-37728-9
	The Physics of Sound, Third Edition. Richard Berg and David Stork Pearson/Addison-Wesley, 2005 ISBN: 0131457896
	The Physics of Musical Instruments, Second Edition. Neville Fletcher and Thomas Rossing Springer, 1998 ISBN: 978-0-387-98374-

Interactive Tools

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Online Resources

Music Theory

Physics of Waves

Musical Instruments

Sound Synthesis

General Acoustics

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