ISP 215: THE SCIENCE OF SOUND - Spring Semester 2002

Class: Tuesday & Thursday 1:00-2:20 pm in room 120 PA
Professor: J. Pumplin (phone 355-9275, e-mail pumplin@pa.msu.edu)
Office hours: Rm 127 PA, 10:00-11:00 and 2:00-3:00 Monday, or by appt.
Course Pack at Ned's Bookstore: Principles of Musical Acoustics 

Topics and assignments (Ch = Chapters of the course pack to read)

 1 Tu 1/8:  Science and acoustics (Ch.1); Simple harmonic motion, 
            frequency, period, amplitude, sine function (Ch.2)
 2 Th 1/10: Natural modes of vibration, multimode systems, spectrum
            (Ch.2 and Ch.3) 

 3 Tu 1/15: Resonance, linear systems, adding waves (Ch.3) 
            [Quiz 1, Chapters 1, 2]
 4 Th 1/17: Transducers, electronic tools (Ch.4) 

 5 Tu 1/22: Waves, polarization, speed of sound (Ch.5) 
            [Quiz 2, Chapters 2, 3, 4]
 6 Th 1/24: Waves in space and time, wavelength (Ch.5) 

 7 Tu 1/29: Interference, beats, reflection (Ch.6)
            [Quiz 3, Chapters 4, 5]
 8 Th 1/31: Standing waves on strings (Ch.7)

 9 Tu 2/5:  Standing waves in pipes (Ch. 8)
            [Quiz 4, Chapters 6, 7]
10 Th 2/7:  Fourier analysis and synthesis (Ch.9) 

11 Tu 2/12: Sound radiation, intensity, decibels (Ch.10)
            [Quiz 5, Chapter 8, 9]
12 Th 2/14: dB drill, Auditory anatomy and tuning (Ch. 10, 11)

13 Tu 2/19: Auditory physiology, loudness (Ch. 11, 12)
            [Quiz 6, Chapters 9, 10, 11]
14 Th 2/21: Loudness and pitch (Ch. 12, 13)

15 Tu 2/26: Pitch and auditory organization (Ch. 13)
            [Quiz 7, Chapters 11, 12, 13]
16 Th 2/28: Localization of sound (Ch.14)

 Spring Break 

17 Tu 3/12: Walls - reflection, transmission, absorption (Ch.15)
            [Quiz 8, Chapters 13, 14]
18 Th 3/14: Room acoustics, reverberation time (Ch. 15)

19 Tu 3/19: Audio and electroacoustic transducers (Ch.16)
            [Quiz 9, Chapters 14, 15]
20 Th 3/21: Nonlinearity and distortion (Ch. 17)

21 Tu 3/26: Loudspeakers (Ch.18)
            [Quiz 10, Chapters 16, 17]
22 Th 3/28: Audio systems (Ch. 19) 

23 Tu 4/2:  Digital audio (Ch. 20)
            [Quiz 11, Chapters 18, 19]
24 Th 4/4:  Vocal anatomy, phonemes and formants (Ch. 22)

25 Tu 4/9:  Spectrograms, speech and singing (Ch. 22)
            [Quiz 12, Chapters 20, 22]
26 Th 4/11: Brass instruments (Ch. 23)

27 Tu 4/16: Woodwind instruments (Ch. 24)
            [Quiz 13, Chapters 22, 23]
28 Th 4/18: String instruments (Ch. 25)

29 Tu 4/23: Percussion instruments (Ch. 26)
30 Th 4/25: Electronic instruments (Ch. 27)

Quizzes: every Tuesday beginning 1/15.  Quizzes will cover the 
         chapters listed above and material discussed in class.
Science is quantitative: BRING A CALCULATOR FOR THE QUIZZES!

Final Exam: Wednesday May 1 12:45-2:45. 

Grading: Each quiz counts 20 points; lowest quiz score will 
         be dropped ==> 12 times 20 = 240 points.  
         Comprehensive Final Exam counts 100 points.

A short bonus quiz will be sometimes be given on Thursdays.