The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to acoustics:

Acoustics – interdisciplinary science that deals with the study of all mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including topics such as vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician while someone working in the field of acoustics technology may be called an acoustical engineer. The application of acoustics is present in almost all aspects of modern society with the most obvious being the audio and noise control industries.

History of acoustics

Main article: History of acoustics

Branches of acoustics

Archaeoacoustics – study of sound within archaeology. This typically involves studying the acoustics of archaeological sites and artefacts.^[1]
Aeroacoustics – study of noise generated by air movement, for instance via turbulence, and the movement of sound through the fluid air. This knowledge is applied in acoustical engineering to study how to quieten aircraft. Aeroacoustics is important to understanding how wind musical instruments work.^[2]
Architectural acoustics – science of how to achieve a good sound within a building.^[3] It typically involves the study of speech intelligibility, speech privacy and music quality in the built environment.^[4] Also known as building acoustics.
Bioacoustics – scientific study of the hearing and calls of animal calls, as well as how animals are affected by the acoustic and sounds of their habitat.^[5]
Electroacoustics – concerned with the recording, manipulation and reproduction of audio using electronics.^[6] This might include products such as mobile phones, large scale public address systems or virtual reality systems in research laboratories.
Environmental noise – concerned with noise and vibration caused by railways,^[7] road traffic, aircraft, industrial equipment and recreational activities.^[8] The main aim of these studies is to reduce levels of environmental noise and vibration. Research work now also has a focus on the positive use of sound in urban and natural environments: soundscapes and tranquility.^[9]
Musical acoustics – study of the physics of acoustic instruments; the audio signal processing used in electronic music; the computer analysis of music and composition, and the perception and cognitive neuroscience of music.^[10]
Psychoacoustics – study of how humans respond to sounds.^[11]
Acoustic signal processing – electronic manipulation of acoustic signals. Applications include: active noise control; design for hearing aids or cochlear implants; echo cancellation; music information retrieval, and perceptual coding (e.g. MP3 or Opus).^[12]
Acoustics of speech – acousticians study the production, processing and perception of speech. Speech recognition and Speech synthesis are two important areas of speech processing using computers. The subject also overlaps with the disciplines of physics, physiology, psychology, and linguistics.^[13]
Ultrasound – Ultrasonics deals with sounds at frequencies too high to be heard by humans. Specialisms include medical ultrasonics (including medical ultrasonography), sonochemistry, material characterisation and underwater acoustics (Sonar).^[14]
Underwater acoustics – scientific study of natural and man-made sounds underwater. Applications include sonar to locate submarines, underwater communication by whales, climate change monitoring by measuring sea temperatures acoustically, sonic weapons,^[15] and marine bioacoustics.^[16]
Acoustics of vibration – study of how mechanical systems vibrate and interact with their surroundings. Applications might include: ground vibrations from railways; vibration isolation to reduce vibration in operating theatres; studying how vibration can damage health (vibration white finger); vibration control to protect a building from earthquakes, or measuring how structure-borne sound moves through buildings.^[17]

Acoustic software

Acoustics organizations

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Acoustics publications

Influential acoustician

Christian Andrews Doppler

Lord Rayleigh

James Lighthill

References

^ Scarre, Christopher (2006). Archaeoacoustics. McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research. ISBN 978-1902937359.
^ da Silva, Andrey Ricardo (2009). Aeroacoustics of Wind Instruments: Investigations and Numerical Methods. VDM Verlag. ISBN 978-3639210644.
^ Morfey, Christopher (2001). Dictionary of Acoustics. Academic Press. p. 32.
^ Templeton, Duncan (1993). Acoustics in the Built Environment: Advice for the Design Team. Architectural Press. ISBN 978-0750605380.
^ "Bioacoustics - the International Journal of Animal Sound and its Recording". Taylor & Francis. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
^ Acoustical Society of America. "Acoustics and You (A Career in Acoustics?)". Archived from the original on 4 September 2015. Retrieved 21 May 2013.
^ Krylov, V.V., ed. (2001). Noise and Vibration from High-speed Trains. Thomas Telford. ISBN 9780727729637.
^ World Health Organisation (2011). Burden of disease from environmental noise (PDF). WHO. ISBN 978-92-890-0229-5.
^ Kang, Jian (2006). Urban Sound Environment. CRC Press. ISBN 978-0415358576.
^ Technical Committee on Musical Acoustics (TCMU) of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA). "ASA TCMU Home Page". Archived from the original on 13 June 2001. Retrieved 22 May 2013.
^ Pohlmann, Ken (2010). Principles of Digital Audio, Sixth Edition. McGraw Hill Professional. p. 336. ISBN 9780071663472.
^ Slaney, Malcolm; Patrick A. Naylor (2011). "Trends in Audio and Acoustic Signal Processing". ICASSP.
^ Speech Communication Technical Committee. "Speech Communication". Acoustical Society of America. Retrieved 22 May 2013.
^ Ensminger, Dale (2012). Ultrasonics: Fundamentals, Technologies, and Applications. CRC Press. pp. 1–2.
^ D. Lohse, B. Schmitz & M. Versluis (2001). "Snapping shrimp make flashing bubbles". Nature. 413 (6855): 477–478. Bibcode:2001Natur.413..477L. doi:10.1038/35097152. PMID 11586346. S2CID 4429684.
^ ASA Underwater Acoustics Technical Committee. "Underwater Acoustics". Archived from the original on 30 July 2013. Retrieved 22 May 2013.
^ Structural Acoustics & Vibration Technical Committee. "Structural Acoustics & Vibration Technical Committee". Archived from the original on 3 November 2013. Retrieved 22 May 2013.

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